Like a Natural Woman Constructing Gender from Performance to Performativity

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In this work, I promote a dialogue between Drama and Performance Studies concerning the performance of gender in everyday life and on the stage. While Judith Butler and others have argued that the performativity of gender must be examined outside of theatre, I argue that theatre can provide us with a unique lens through which to examine aspects of gender that can be overlooked in everyday life. The plays and performance art I have chosen highlight different modes of performing gender through representations of the female body, which introduce the tension between the discursively produced body and the lived, phenomenological body onstage. By exploring this tension, I argue that the performativity of gender onstage arises from a combination of words, the presentation of tangible bodies, and the audience’s response to the stage action. I bring together iconic playwright Samuel Beckett with Cuban-American performance artist Ana Mendieta and Irish playwright Marina Carr in order to represent different modes of performance. This study should prove useful for scholars in theatre, performance studies, and gender studies, who are interested in examining gender in a theatrical context.