Du Maurier's "Rebecca"

Paper Summary:

The paper explores one of the key concerns of Daphne Du Maurier's novel, "Rebecca": the development of a gendered, specifically feminine, subjectivity. The paper clarifies what is implied by the term 'subjectivity'. The paper examines through a psychoanalytical lens exactly what constitutes femininity and the nature of its relationship to subjectivity. The paper then analyzes how this relationship is questioned by the role of the narrator in "Rebecca." The paper shows how the narrator emphasises the socially constructed nature of femininity, partly through the masquerade of her narrative identity.

From the Paper:

"Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier's fifth and most famous novel , begins with what is perhaps one of the most oft-cited sentences in literature: 'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again'. (p. 1) This first sentence immediately introduces the reader to both the nature of the novel and what is ultimately one of the key concerns of the novel: the development of a gendered, specifically feminine, subjectivity. From the very first sentence of Rebecca which is, in Du Maurier's words, a 'psychological' novel, one is invited into the narrator's 'world of dreams and daydreams' and, through Du Maurier's use of a first person narrator, is encouraged to voyeuristically play witness to the narrator's thought processes and developing awareness of what it is to be feminine. It is also through this mode of narration that one is able to perceive the development of a 'normative' femininity and, crucially, witness the relationship taking place between this femininity and the narrator's subjectivity."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Atkins, Kim, 'Introduction', in Self and Subjectivity, ed. by Kim Atkins (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005)
• Bal, Mieke, Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, trans. by Christine van Boheemen (Buffalo; London; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985)
• Beauman, Sally, 'Introduction', in Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca (London: Virago, 2003), pp. v-xvii.
• Butler, Judith, Bodies That Matter (London; New York: Routledge, 1993)
• Butler, Judith Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (London; New York: Routledge, 1999)

More papers on Du Maurier's "Rebecca":

• Analytical Essay # 133674 : "Women and Social Class in "Rebecca"
• Analytical Essay # 41398 : "Rebecca"
• Book Review # 104190 : "Rebecca": Women and Society"

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