Undiagnosing Iphis: How the Lack of Trauma in John Gower's "Iphis And Iante" Reinforces a Subversive Trans Narrative.
- Author/Editor
- Janecek, C.
- Title
- Undiagnosing Iphis: How the Lack of Trauma in John Gower's "Iphis And Iante" Reinforces a Subversive Trans Narrative.
- Published
- Janecek, C. "Undiagnosing Iphis: How the Lack of Trauma in John Gower's 'Iphis And Iante' Reinforces a Subversive Trans Narrative." Accessus 5.1 (2019): n.p.
- Review
- Janecek posits that Gower's consistent use of masculine pronouns in "Iphis and Iante" in reference to Iphis creates a "subversive trans narrative that revolts against cisnormative conceptions of transness." Gower's tale "challenges the role of trauma in shaping not only queer identity, but specifically trans identity." Because Gower's tale lacks the trauma present in Ovid's original, we may read this as a trans narrative rather than an erasure of lesbian identity. Janecek differentiates how gender works for Iphis in both versions of the tale: in Ovid's version, gender is a vehicle to act on desire whereas in Gower it operates irrespective of desire. Rather than label characters in a text, queer theory aims "to analyze social and historical forces and cues that encourage queer readings." Janecek argues that the key difference between Ovid's and Gower's depictions of Iphis is reducible to the relationship between identity and body. For Ovid, gender is discovered through the body; for Gower, gender is an internal part of one's nature. In Gower's version, Iphis is not an incomplete man; rather, the transformation that he undergoes confirms his masculine identity. As Janecek puts it, "Gower's Iphis is born a son, accepted as a son, and in the end, his core identity becomes confirmed." Janecek continues then to engage M. W. Bychowski's work on this same tale at some length, referencing definitions from the "Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" as well as Judith Butler's "Undoing Gender." Janecek argues against Bychowski's argument that Iphis needs to exhibit gender dysphoria to be diagnosed as trans and to then achieve any sense of agency, concluding that Gower's tale indeed emphasizes Iphis's agency in expressing his identity as a trans child without trauma. [JGS. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 39.2]
- Date
- 2019
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations