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Viewing report
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A Modern Hermaphrodite?. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, April 2010, Pages: 88
What is intersex gender identity, and is there such a thing as a “typical” hermaphrodite? I looked at literary sources that deal with the same or a similar subject (Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Julia Ward Howe’s The Hermaphrodite and Honorè de Balzac’s Sarrassine), and compared them to Middlesex. Furthermore, comparing the text with medical and sociological research revealed that there are many parallels between actual cases and the ficional character Eugenides brought to life. Finally, I looked at the text itself. The questions asked here are: Is Middlesex an ancient epic in modern form? Cal, as the narrator of the story, is certainly believable and trustworthy, but we have to be on our toes because he will occasionally make up a detail here and there to make his story more interesting – in true fashion of an ancient storyteller in an oral culture. Is there such a thing as a 'typical' hermaphrodite? Can a text combine ancient narrative traditions and modern history? I think so. And we will certainly have to realize that sex and gender do not necessarily have to stay in the binary corners of male/female, but that there is much in between, too.
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