Drag’s Double Inversion: Insufficient Language and Gender Performativity in The Well of Loneliness and Nightwood

Abstract

ABSTRACTContemporary critics often object to the outdated, binary representations of gender and sexuality present in two of the earliest lesbian novels, The Well of Loneliness and Nightwood, arguing they have little to offer our modern conceptions of identity. This article re-examines these two texts through the lens of “drag” performance to demonstrate that they prefigure Judith Butler’s gender performance and testify to the contingency not only of identity, but also of language. These two early twentieth century novels illustrate that not only are fixed categories insufficient for representing identity in language, but that it is all but impossible to conceive of gender without being limited by existing linguistic structures. Both Radclyffe Hall and Djuna Barnes very clearly demonstrate that the sign systems used to express identity—whether they be linguistic or performative codes—are not mediums which represent any “truth” about inner reality, but are merely contingent upon pre-existing systems.