ABSTRACT

This essay aims to identify and examine a recurring but overlooked motif in twentieth-century literary representations of transgender: namely, the ways in which gender identity is achieved, confirmed or normalised through the construction of ‘others’ whose experiences – mediated through discourses of colonialism, Empire and race – render material for contrast, comparison or analogy. By tracking this motif across a selection of landmark texts, including Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928), Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve (1977) and Rose Tremain’s Sacred Country (1992), this essay interrogates the ways in which transgender visibility can be implicated in discourses of race: in doing so it endeavours to explore the ways in which in/visibility can both confer and deny identity, and protect and subvert privilege. By demonstrating how the presence of (white) transgender characters in literary fiction across the twentieth century has served to racialise ‘others’ it seeks to draw attention to the politics of in/visibility in relation to race and gender and its implications for transgender visibility in cultural representation.

摘要

本文旨在识别和研究二十世纪跨性别文学表现形式中反复出现但被忽视的主题：即，通过建构“他人”的经历，通过殖民主义话语来建构，确认或规范性别认同的方式，帝国与种族–提供对比，比较或类比的素材。通过在一系列地标性文字中追踪这个主题，包括弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫的《奥兰多》（1928年），安吉拉·卡特的《新年前夜的激情》（1977年）和罗斯·特雷曼的《神圣国家》（1992年），本文探讨了跨性别的可见性可以被纳入种族话语的方式：在这样做的过程中，它努力探索可见性可以同时赋予和拒绝身份，保护和颠覆特权的方式。通过展示二十世纪文学小说中（白人）变性人角色的存在如何使“其他”种族化，它试图提请人们注意种族和性别方面的不可见政治及其对跨性别可见性的影响。文化代表。