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Haneen Al Ibrahim
ENGL 676: Critical Approaches to Literature
Dr. Thomas Slater
Spring 2007

Q2: What role does the body play in each of the essays in this section? What
would Wittig say about the medieval fluidity of gender definition? Would Wittig like
or trust the concept of Jesus as mother? If, as Wittig hopes, we someday become a
sexless society, how would this change our conceptions of feminine and masculine
religious figures? Are such changes appealing to you? Why or why not?

In the essays of this section, the body plays several different roles and can fit

into several interpretations as to how it functions according to each critic. According

to Lacan, the body image forms the identification of the self and ego, and Monique

Wittig sees the body as means of gender formation, and she argues that identity

should not be formed according to biological factors and a woman is not born so but

she chooses to become one, and that the difference between men and women is not

biological but ideological. As for Caroline Walker Bynum, she focuses on the

understanding of the body of men and women in the Middle Ages and how they were

viewed as somehow biologically similar. And according to Jean-Pierre Vernant, the

Greeks saw the body and soul as one entity.

What Wittig argues in her essay seems to fall in contrast with what Bynum

describes as gender boundary crossing in the lat Middle Ages. While Bynum states in

her essay that “theology, natural philosophy and folk tradition mingle male and

female in their understanding of human character and human physiology” (562),

Wittig calls for the separation between men and women and expresses the need of

creating a sexless society in which women are identified according to their ideology

rather than biology.

I believe the same thing would be said here about whether Wittig likes or

trusts the concept of Jesus as mother, because what she asserts on in her essay is not
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for women to be more recognized or appreciated in a male world, but to create a

society or an environment in which there is no biological gender identification. And in

the image or concept of Jesus being a mother is gender identification and I don’t think

she would like it or consider it vital to her belief of how gender is not what identifies

women.

Q5: As illustrated through Lacan’s theory of the mirror stage, the visual field
plays a powerful role in identity formation. In what other aspects of our lives does
sight play a central role? Given that the eye is easily deceived, is our heavy reliance
on it appropriate? Although the ear, too, plays in identity formation, other sensory
fields such as taste, touch, and smell get short shrift. Would out identity be radically
altered if less importance were placed on the eye and more importance on other
sensory organs? If so, how?

Jacques Lacan states in his essay that the mirror stage is the most important

stage in a person’s life as it builds or constitutes his own identity and his relation to all

movements and objects around him. Its importance lies in that it takes place from a

very early age in a child’s life as he starts to recognize his own image in the mirror

before being able to attain control on his movements or even starts to talk. He explain

the stage as an identification of the self and it comes before all other stages that are

associated with identifying oneself, thus he calls it “the Ideal-I” in that it “situates the

agency of the ego, before its social determination, in a fictional direction, which will

always remain irreducible for the individual alone.” (549).

So even though the mirror stage is essential in forming the self identification,

it’s still not enough because this identity created from looking at one’s image in the

mirror is exclusive in the mind of that person himself, and it doesn’t mean that the

society surrounding him looks at him in the same way he looks at himself.
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The visual field plays an essential and crucial role in identity formation, not

just in the formation of the self, but also in the formation of the society as a whole.

However, it needs more than this visual field to form a sound and accurate identity of

ourselves or the surrounding community and environment because the eye could be

deceived and what we see might not be the right element that constructs an identity of

a specific person. Other factors in forming the identity is how the society or others

view us according to cultural, social, ethnic, and spiritual influences. And how we

tend to think of ourselves is reflected in our daily behaviors and interactions with

others, therefore it affects how the community will look at us in turn.

As a result of that, the sight is still am important element in forming the

identity even though it can be deceived or affected by other factors because it’s the

first stage the forms a person’s identity and gives him a kind of individuality that

differentiates him from others. And after this stage of forming the ego, a completion

for the formed identity comes from the outer side of the self and the surrounding

environment which is formed via the relation between the ego and the society.