Traditional Gender Roles and Performative Gender in Joyce Carol Oates' "Sexy"

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,3, University of Koblenz-Landau, language: English, abstract: The following paper analyses Joyce Carol Oates¿ novel ¿Sexy¿. Darren, the main pro-tagonist, finds himself between rising sexuality, his parents¿ and teachers¿ expecta-tions towards him as an adolescent man as well as peer-pressure in his boys¿ clique. The interplay of power structures, homosexuality and gender identity additionally contribute to the complexity of the novel. Therefore, the research question of this paper focuses on how general notions of gender influence individuals¿ identities.

The first part of the paper is a literary analysis of the text regarding traditional gender roles and Judith Butler¿s notion of sex and gender. Men and women perform accord-ing to what they learn is appropriate for their biological sex, caught within binary categories. The same applies to the characters in Oates¿ ¿Sexy¿, except for Mr. Tracy who does not fit gendered categories and becomes victim of homosexual persecution. Shifts in ¿gender-appropriate¿ performances can also be observed regarding Darren. Thus, this paper argues that sex and gendered identity are multidimensional con-structs characterised by fluidity and changeability.

According to Thaler literature is not only taught for the sake of personal enrich-ment or intercultural learning but also language development. Therefore, a didactic analysis is provided in the last chapter regarding the curriculum, the topic¿s classroom relevance as well as a methodological analysis.