‘The Double’: An intervention in the mimesis of dominant masculinity

Abstract

The present article focuses on The Double, deliberately turning away from the literary motif that Saramago appropriates to denaturalize and expose the constructedness of dominant masculinity and its apparatuses of social and symbolic reproduction. The analysis sheds light on the functioning of several of such instruments, as dramatized in the novel: the name as original language; popular cinema; and common senses inherited from the oral tradition. The final section discusses the critical commentary that accompanies the narrative in dialog with contemporary critiques of masculine gender privilege.

Keywords

• binary gender
• ideological interpellation
• normativity
• symbolic reproduction
• masculine domination