Pauline Eller

Unsexed beings: constructing gender, humanness, and agency through the use of the word “unsex” in Late Modern British society and writing

Supervisor: Dr Ben Griffin (Faculty of History, University of Cambridge)

Abstract:

Although fascinatingly ambiguous, the word “unsex” today is only a distant Shakespearean memory and hovers in our vocabulary entirely unquestioned. As a discursive tool for denunciation and defamation it constitutes a form of gendered verbal abuse that threatens a person’s legibility as a subject. My PhD research investigates this tool and its role in the socio-political task of meaning-making around concepts of gender and humanness in 19th Century British society. Centring my project on the three clusters of discourse, I delve into Parliamentary papers, medical journals, and female authored creative writing in Late Modern Britain. My work builds on sociolinguistics, hermeneutics, and critical discourse theory in order to unravel the layers of use of the word “unsex”, the discursive strategies embedded in this use, and the broader discourses it speaks to. Tracing the occurrence of “unsex” leaves us with a puzzle of unsettled meanings shaped at once by its thematical context and practical application, as well as by the respective communication medium itself. Alongside questions of gender and humanness, I ask how agency is used, framed and asserted through the use of “unsex”, especially regarding authorship and audience. Overall, I seek to anchor this research in the poststructuralist project of reimagining the history of gender along vectors of power and their intersections (LaFleur, 2014). Considering the word “unsex” in its capacity to settle and unsettle concepts of human and gender, I lean on critical humanism and how social categories are reinforced through a simple word.

Academic Background:

MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies, University of Cambridge

MPhil in Education (Art, Creativity and Education), University of Cambridge

BA (Hons) in Drama, University of Exeter

Research Interests:

History of gender, Feminist Theory, speech act theory Poststructuralism, Critical Humanism, British Parliamentary Discourse, Suffrage writing, History of medicine, critical discourse theory, sociolinguistics, Theatre and Performance Studies, Interdisciplinary Pedagogies, practice-as-research, Dramaturgical Practice

Other Honours:

German Academic Scholarship Foundation, (Alumna)