Category crisis’ as an appearing point in revelation the truth.

Biologically given or what does it mean to change sex?

Past and present has differences and similarities. Both are marked by climactic changes, medical supplies, and new inventions. The same happens with understanding reality, as it alters because of people and different kinds of modern things that weren't achievable in the past centuries. In these words, the most interesting mystery of changing sex goes. Gender is an inborn trait of every human being. At least it is true before a person decides to change it, to become somebody else, not a man, or a woman as we see Joss Moody in Jackie Kay's Trumpet. Xavier Aldana Reyes writes about gender issues in Trumpet and the Passion of New Eve and refers to feminism critics of Lynne Segal. In the article Why feminism? Segal writes that confusion of gender boundaries is essential to a fruitful destabilization of 'compulsory heterosexuality'. From this point, Reyes sums it up as an 'effort to demonstrate how gender is always halfway between reality and fabrication' in the novel.

In Jackie Kay's Trumpet, we see Joss Moody, and then how 'her' shift of sex (as we get to know of the fact, that he is really she) affects other people in the novel, leading to 'category crisis'.

Firstly, this term is used by Marjorie Garber in her book Vested Interests: cross-dressing & cultural anxiety. She defines it as ''a failure of definitional distinction, a borderline, that becomes permeable, that permits of border from one category to another: black/white, Jew/Christian, noble/bourgeois, master/servant, master/slave'' (Garber, p.16). The same concept can be applied to masculinity and femininity. I agree with the statement of 'category crisis', which is ''an epistemological cul-de-sac, where in the moment of horror, neither signifier seems able to contain, or even convey, the signified''. This term is applied in Reyes' article towards Trumpet. Doctor Krishnamurty and the funeral director are examples of this 'category crisis'. ''She crossed ‘male’ out and wrote ‘female’ in her rather bad doctor’s handwriting. She looked at the word ‘female’ and thought it wasn’t clear enough. She crossed that out, tutting to herself, and printed ‘female’ in large childish letters''(Kay, p.42). Here Reyes gives it as an example, motivating this line like ''an imprecise feeling of ambiguity on filling in the medical certificate, is forced to seek comfort in the biological solace which comes with the momentary epiphanic relief that is indeed 'in possession of the female body parts' ''. In another example concerning Albert Holding we see how funeral director, so dedicated to his work all his life begins to doubt regarding the sex of a dead body. These doubts make him feel confused and rethink what it means to identify as male or female, as earlier he thought that the only difference between them is sexual organs. ''The funeral director, on seeing Joss’s corpse and the absence of the penis, cannot withhold a feeling of tremendous uneasiness, ‘as if he had done something wrong. As if he was not doing his job properly‘ '',(Reyes). Here we see the effect of how changing sex can influence even a mature, confident person. The fact that Albert wants to ring Mrs. Moody, but can't find appropriate words to say is very related to category crisis as it is its' sequence. Feeling of horror, then a lot of thoughts in the mind and finally long feeling of uncertainty what to do. Reys also illustrates the example of horror because of revelation the truth by means of giving a citation from the book: ''he still found himself referring to as Mrs. Moody's husband''. I'm with Xavier at this point. 'Category crisis' make people feel unconfident in facts that they do know and force them to rethink about what is going on. Nevertheless, Reyes doesn't give any more explanations according to Holding's words. The paragraph, that remains untouched by Xavier Reyes precedes calling Joss as 'Mrs. Moody's husband'. The moment before Holding removed bandages was quite enough. As soon as he put it off and saw breasts – ''staring up at him in all innocence'', (Kay, p.110). He grasped himself with the idea of how couldn't he know that he was she! Everything becomes obvious: ''The face transformed. It looked more round, more womanly. It was without a question a woman's face. How anybody could have ever thought that face male was beyond Albert Holding. How he himself could have thought it was male!'', (Kay, p.110). It is extremely interesting. This episode can be connected with 'category crisis' even if not immediately, but indirect. I can call it 'sudden crisis of the evidence'. When somebody is definitely sure in something, and after that the proof is seen, what makes it really authentic, the most common words are ''yeah, absolutely, I'm right, but how couldn't I guess it earlier?''. Consequently, the thing that makes it similar to 'category crisis' is surprise. As both 'category crisis' and 'sudden crisis of the evidence' are based on it.

What really surprised me is that I didn't find other characters of the novel in the context of' 'category crisis' in the article. We see Millie in a position of ''the understanding wife''(Reyes), Colman, and ''his refusal to believe, not so much in Joss as a father figure, but rather in the lack of trust that Joss seems to have placed on him by keeping him in the dark''(Reyes). Unfortunately, any relation any further connections are given towards 'category crisis' here. Millie's memories and experience as a wife who lost her beloved and all the emotions she sustained could be considered as 'category crisis' in some way. Millie's whole life loses all sense to exist without Joss: ''When the love of your life dies, the problem is not that some part of you dies too, which it does, but that some part of you is still alive''(p.36). Her grief, her suffering and bulk of memories doesn't leave her, it just increases the crisis of her soul: ''I can feel his death inside me. We are as close as sex, as birth. I feel drained by his illness''(p.98). She experiences horror, when she becomes alone: ''Now what am I? Can I remember? Joss Moody's widow. That's what I am, Joss Moody's widow''(p.8). Her memories are the key to rethinking different options of her life. In these reconsiderations we can observe 'category crisis'.

While staying in her apartments when Joss is already gone, she's thinking that he's still here, what is also a kind of 'category crisis': ''I climb into our old bed and place my cup of tea at my side. The space next to me bristles with silence. The emptiness is palpable. Loss isn't an absence after all. It is a presence. A strong presence here next to me. I sip my tea and look at it. It doesn't look like anything, that's what is so strange. It just fits in. Last night I was certain it was definite shape. I bashed the sheets about to see if it would declare itself'', (p.12). Millie knows that Joss is dead and he isn't able to return back to life. However, something forces her to think that maybe she can find him in their mutual bed. Here is the crisis, as truth is obvious, but Millie still can't believe this as her grief is overwhelming. This point Reyes doesn't examine in his article. This makes another disadvantage in exploring 'category crisis'.

Reyes writes that the novel has a hint ''at a very poststructuralist view of language as lacking real physical referents;'' He motivates it giving an example of Millie, who is exhausted because of emotions after the death of her husband. She begins to turn around all thoughts and ''laments that people ‘will find words to put on to me. Words that don’t fit me. Words that don’t fit Joss. They will call him names. Terrible vertigo names''(p. 64). ''Thus, these new bodies, these new ‘males’,these ‘fantasies of themselves’ supersede and advance their own textual and sexual discourses and pave the way for innovative conceptions of gender and contrasting legitimations of feeling that might aid towards the formation of a new geography of gender'' (Reyes). Describing connection between gender issues and the language of the novel, it may be supposed, that accurate boundaries between sexual differences are finally revealed.

Plainly, Reyes' article shows that gender issues in Trumpet are very specific. He focuses on body as a source of masculinity and femininity simultaneously. He adds an interesting notion of 'category crisis', which affects other people in the novel. It makes them feel perplexed and in the moment of grief and horror they begin to lose their concentration. This crisis happens to Holding, Doctor Krishnamurty, Millie and Colman. Due to examining Reyes' article, the notion as 'sudden crisis of the evidence' appears in my mind. It shows how different the states can be, while somebody is dead and truth is just exposed. The idea of shifting gender includes different consequences, and 'category crisis' is one of the items, which is need to be explored more detailed in Trumpet.

WORKS CITED:

Reyes, Xavier. ''Gender as a ‘Biological Given’: Transcending Gender in Trumpet ''. bodiesofwork.info

Kay, Jackie. Trumpet. Pantheon books, New York, 1998, Print.

Garber, Marjorie. Vested interests: cross dressing and cultural anxiety. First HarpePerennial edition, 1993, New York, Print.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14