The Trauma of Gender: a Feminist Theory of the English Novel

Abstract

Helene Moglen’s The Trauma of Gender: A Feminist Theory of the English Novel challenges the conventional view that the rise of capitalism and the accession of the middle class in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the main reasons for the development of the English novel. Rather, she attributes the emergence of this genre more to the establishment of the sex-gender system in England. Moglen also challenges the assumption that realism is the dominant feature of the early English novel, arguing that both realist and fantastic elements occur in the genre; whereas the realistic serves to outline a gendered society, the fantastic reveals internal conflict, and the convergence of these strains results in the emanation of individualism. Moglen argues that the shift in the economic structure and the failure to distinguish ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ purely based on genitalia changed social perceptions of gender, thereby causing a ‘trauma of gender’. This trauma is evidenced by the constant fear of not living up to gender roles, by a sense of tension between the sexes and an inability to express emotions.