She's the Man : A Close Reading of Gender in The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

Sammanfattning: This essay focuses on gender behaviour in The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West. The claim for this essay argues that West has changed the traditional gender roles in her novel by giving female characters masculine attributes and the male character feminine attributes. The theoretical framework provides a comparison of how West’s gender construction in her novel differs from older literature. The comparison is carried out by providing examples from two novels from the nineteenth century, in which we can see how men and women could be portrayed. The theoretical framework also discusses feminist theories by Toril Moi, masculinity studies by Alex Hobbs, and typical gender stereotypes according to Jeff Hearn. These theories are used to analyse how the characters’ gender behaviour is affected by social factors and how West deviates from the traditional construction of gender roles.