Polish Journal of English Studies (Jun 2024)
The Feminine/Domestic Landscape and a Search for Identity in Deborah Levy’s Real Estate
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyse the question of a personal search for identity as well as the broader cultural concept of “feminine identity” in relation to domesticity and landscape in Deborah Levy’s Real Estate, published in 2021. The third and last instalment of Levy’s “A Living Autobiography” series is an account of a woman’s search for identity in the context of major life changes: no longer a wife, no longer a mother living with her children, and no longer young, the narrator (who is and is not the author, according to Levy herself) examines her own relationship with home, homeland, and houses in various geographical locations, including her dream house – her unreal estate. The spectral dream house, positioned at the intersection of the past, the present, and the future, together with land and a very specific type of fluid landscape, constitute an object of the narrator’s profound desire. By expanding on the topic of this longing, Levy engages in reflection on women’s wanting and its habitual subjugation to the needs of others. The paper demonstrates how in this way Levy enters into a dialogue with Sigmund Freud and his famous unanswered question “Was will das Weib?” Most importantly, it is shown how the narrator generally considers women’s – including female artists’ – place at home and in culture within patriarchy. Applying a feminist and gender studies perspective, as well as by combining hauntology with housing studies, this paper examines the key symbolism of Real Estate and ultimately reads the book as a feminist writer’s manifesto declaring “my books are my real estate,” while placing it against the background of older feminist tradition, represented by such writers as Virginia Woolf, Betty Friedan, and Annette Kolodny.
