Vestidos para matar: O sexo das guerras em Cather e Faulkner

Abstract

This is a comparative reading of two war novels: One of Ours, by Willa Cather, and The Unvanquished, by William Faulkner. The comparison addresses gender construction and gender subversion in the socially disruptive context of military conflict. Focusing mainly on two characters, Claude Wheeler and Drusilla Hawk, I intend to investigate the war in the novels as a space chosen by both authors to test out the young characters’ gender (in-)conformity and the extent of their ability to challenge social and religious convention. Since both join the army voluntarily, the war appears as a site for social destruction as much as for individual construction. I am interested in the fact that both writers chose a soldier-figure of the opposite sex and will be discussing the reasons for such options and possible theoretical implications.

Keywords

• Willa Cather
• William Faulkner
• gender
• gender identity
• war
• Modernism