Definition and analysis of the main character and narrator of the story "Disappearing" by Monica Wood. The study and characteristic of specific features of the context of the society in which he lives a woman: patriarchy, feminism and postmodernism.
Аннотация к работе
Finally, the study of the narrator’s discourse will show how the female character perceives reality and how she handles it in view of the obsession with image in the postmodern / patriarchal society in which she lives. For this purpose, the works by Robert Humphrey (1954) and Manfred Jahn (2005) which will serve as the theoretical framework to explore how speech and thought are represented. The context in which discourse is expressed can shape the way a person signifies his or her reality. Therefore, in order to analyse the short story “Disappearing”, context and discourse cannot be separated since the ideas of women’s body, language, and psyche must be interpreted in relation to the contexts in which they occur. This paper sustains the idea that in order to live in a postmodern society which is mainly dominated by men and which uses the slender body as the only path to success and power, women must surrender and accept the cultural demands or otherwise, alienate or oppose to the culture?s grip on women’s subordination. A patriarchal society is dependent on female subordination and based on the belief that the male is the superior sex. If a society can come to accept the male supremacy, that males are more worthy and more deserving, then the system is perpetuated (Spender 1990: 1) . While it is true that in many countries advances have been achieved in asserting women’s rights, some women worldwide still earn less and own less property than men, and have less access to education, employment and health care. Pervasive discrimination continues to deny women full political and economic equality with men. In view of this, women whose lives do not conform to society’s expectations are often the victims, not only of ostracism but also of violent treatment. Much of the violence faced by women in everyday life is at the hands of the people with whom they share their lives, whether as members of their family, of their community or as their employers. There is an unbroken spectrum of violence that women face at the hands of men who exert control over them. In the story under analysis, this violent behavior is mainly manifested in the use of language as well as in indifference. The opening paragraph in Disappearing depicts the female character having mechanical and indifferent sex with her partner. She does not seem to be interested in it or attracted to him but she must please her husband: “When he starts in, I don’t look anymore. I know what it looks like, what he looks like, tobacco on his teeth. I just lie in the deep sheets and shut my eyes. I make noises that make it go faster, and when he’s done he’s as far from me as he gets. He could be dead he’s so far away” (lines 1-4).