Mimesis of Sexuality: A Select Literary Study of Autobiographies by Transgender Individuals

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the question of transgender sexuality via the conceptual frames of ‘corporeality’, ‘mimesis’ and ‘performance’. The study examines the intricacies in the construction of hijras and FTM transsexual ‘corporeality’, ‘identity’, and ‘subjectivity’ in terms of appearance and ‘performance’ through select transgender autobiographies. The queries that are examined during the course of this research are: How does culture shape transgender identity? What are the factors that contribute to transgender identity? Is the transition from a cisgender to a transgender identity vividly depicted in transgender narratives? The objectives determined for this research are: To understand the factors that contribute identity of being a trans from the perspective of transgender individuals. Interpreting the socio-cultural relationship between the trans ‘body’ and the ‘self’. To analyse the construction of transgender identity in India and the West. The methods employed in this research include, analysis and interpretation of primary, secondary, and tertiary resources in the fields of gender studies, sexuality studies and transgender studies. This research finds that, in order to construct an identity and corporeality, hijras and FTM transsexuals undergo a series of mimetic processes which showcases a separate identity claimed on the basis of corporeal and performative significations. It is further found that ‘gender performativity’ and ‘imitative’ acts adopted by hijras and transsexuals contribute in the construction of transgender embodiment as transgender individuals undergo ‘corporeal’, ‘physical’, and ‘psychological’ changes during the process of identity formation. This research concludes that the processes of embodiment and beautification further deliver the idea of the performative dimension of the body, which emphasizes how performance is a ‘citational precedent’ of ‘the embodied gesture of the body’.