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The Rhetoric of Androgyny: Gender and Boundaries in Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness

The androgyny of the Gethenians in The Left Hand of Darkness is a vehicle for Ursula Le Guin's rhetoric concerning gender roles. Le Guin attempts to make the reader identify with an ideal form of androgyny, through which she argues that many of the problems of human existence, from rape and war to dualistic thought and sexism, are products of gender roles and would be absent in an androgynous world. The novel also links barriers of separation and Othering with masculine thought, and deconstructs these separative boundaries of opposition, while promoting connective borders which acknowledge difference without creating opposition. The novel thus criticizes gendered thought processes and social roles, because they lead to opposition and separation.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc277680
Date08 1900
CreatorsGleason, Benjamin P. (Benjamin Patrick)
ContributorsRodman, Barbara Ann, Preston, Thomas R.
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatiii, 73 leaves, Text
RightsPublic, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved., Gleason, Benjamin P. (Benjamin Patrick)

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