BACHA POSH GENDER PERFORMATIVITY IN NOVEL PARVANA (2002) BY DEBORAH ELLIS
Anisah
Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia
Prof. Dr. Selo Soemardjan Street, Universitas Indonesia, Pondok Cina, Beji, Depok
16424, West Java, Indonesia
Abstract
Bacha posh is a girl who looks and behaves like a boy, or a girl who is raised as a boy. The bacha posh identity entails adopting male clothing, male hairstyle and a boy name. Becoming a bacha posh also requires a girl to embrace masculine mannerisms, such that she could resemble a boy. This paper analyzes bacha posh performativity as demonstrated by the characters Parvana and Shauzia in the novel Parvana written by Deborah Ellis. In doing so, the paper employs the theory of gender performativity formulated by Judith Butler (Gender Trouble: 1990). The results of the analysis shed light on the following points. First, the bacha posh performativity as demonstrated by Parvana is shown through several processes of transformation; these include (1) changes in appearance (wearing male clothing and having male hairstyle), (2) the use of a boy name (Kaseem instead of her girl name, Parvana), (3) a change in her behavior (how she confronts and positions herself against her male counterparts). The use of male attributes suggests the ongoing formation of bacha posh identity in Parvana. Secondly, the bacha posh performativity in Shauzia is conveyed through the use of a boy name (Shafiq) and the adoption of male appearance and mannerisms. Unlike Parvana, the bacha posh identity in Shauzia has been well-established. Through these two bacha posh characters, it can be concluded that gender is a matter of ‘nurture- instead of ‘nature-; it is an act, instead of an absolute reality, that is performed repeatedly so that it becomes a stable identity.
Keywords: Keywords: bacha posh, gender performativity, gender identity, bacha posh identity.
Topic: International Conference of English Language Teaching, Literature & Linguistics