The Representation of the Third Gender in Kathleen Winter’s Annabel (2010) and Anosh Irani’s The Parcel (2016)

Abstract

To explore their nuanced identity, a number of writers resort to third gendered characters to offer alternative perspectives on gender and describe the suffering they undergo because of their identification. This study explores the way the Canadian novelist Kathleen Winter and the Indo-Canadian writer Anosh Irani deconstruct the traditional gender categorizations, and the preestablished gender identities of male and female by narrating the hardships the third gender communities encounter in regard to their identity in their novels Annabel (2010) and The Parcel (2016). Accordingly, relying on the theories of Judith Butler’ and Carl Jung, this paper aims at demonstrating how the two novelists challenge binary notions of gender showing them to be socially constructed and accentuating its performativity. It further unravels the struggles third-gender people undergo because of their identity confusion. The study concludes that both novelists take on a Butlerian understanding of gender as they transcend dominant narratives and disrupt traditional gender norms through their gender ambiguous characters. They also depict their characters’ journey toward acceptance by achieving individuation.