Masculinity, Femininity And The Subversion Of Gender Roles In Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind (1936)

Résumé: This research paper aims at exploring masculinity, femininity and gender roles in Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind (1936). For its theoretical bearings, we have relied on Judith Butler’s theory of Performativity, developed in her book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990). We intend to draw on some of its concepts such as “drag” and the “subversion of identity” that are mirrored through the novel’s characters. We have focused on the analysis of the development of the characters focusing on their manners and behaviors. Yet, our dissertation was not restricted to a superficial study of Mitchell’s characters, but we have also depended on the changing of their gender roles. Our analysis is revolved around what pushed them to change their gender roles and how they violate the social norms during and after the American Civil War(1861-1865)and Reconstruction(1863-1877). This study has reached some of the following conclusions. The first is that the characters of the novel are divided into two categories that reflect reality in South America during and after the Civil War. The second conclusion is that femininity and masculinity is related on the characters’ performance not on their sex, besides the masculine has become feminine and the feminine has become masculine. The third and the last conclusion is that the subversion of the social norms caused by the Civil War gives birth to new femininity and masculinity in the South.

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