S A R A H S C E AT S 85 agency for ourselves The applicability of these ideas to Carter’s writing generally is evident in the edgy sexual politics of her early novels, in the gender and identity bending of The Infernal Desires of Dr Hoffman The Passion of New Eve and many of her short stories, most particularly in the frankly performative emphases of her last two novels, Nights at the Circus and Wise Children Not everyone is convinced by Butler’s arguments, however In a significant review essay, Martha Nussbaum criticizes Butler for her inference that we are entirely constructed by our experience at the same time as making the contradictory claim that we can offer resistance and even effect change.8 She takes her to task, too, for the claim that the body, especially in its sexual differentiation, is a social construction; since the body is clearly a material entity, it seems preferable to speak instead of our conception of the body as being socially constructed ‘It is surely too simple to write it all off as culture’, Nussbaum writes, with limpid logic, for different bodies have different needs at different times, and the interplay between the physical and the cultural is more complex and nuanced than Butler’s ‘abstract pronouncements’ allow.9 As for the question of parodic performance as a means of subverting inequalities, this is all very well, Nussbaum says, but it only works if you agree about what needs to be subverted What happens when someone engages in parodic and subversive acts that are, for example, anti-feminist or anti-gay: ‘These things happen They are parodic and subversive Why, then, aren’t they daring and good?’.10 She also points out that the mechanism Butler identifies as producing the harmful perpetuation of gender inequalities also functions where ‘social virtues’ (such as justice) are concerned As any good teacher or student knows, we learn through repeated performance (Nussbaum alludes to Aristotle’s concept of learning by doing) and this is how we become socialized in the best sense The parodic subversion of justice is not good, either in politics or in personal life The core of Nussbaum’s criticism, then, is that there is a lack of core in Butler: readers must fill the void with their own good ideas of equality or dignity Before I consider the extent to which Butler and Nussbaum are applicable to Carter’s writing, it is worth noting that there is some debate about the extent to which Carter embraces a truly ‘Butlerian’ view of the mutability of gender, given what some see as her recidivist tendency to represent women as having an ‘essential’ feminine identity Some critics consider that, despite her avowed emphasis on the social construction of gender and identity, her writing indicates a view of femininity and masculinity as being to some extent innate and, therefore, presumably, unalterable Since this ground has been well trodden, I not propose to rehearse all the arguments here, though some of the material will effectively be covered, if from a slightly different perspective.11 Instead of limiting the focus of this essay to considering the performative nature of gender, my intention is rather to explore how Nights at the Circus plays with various political and existential possibilities relating to the self and performance, the body and the construction (deconstruction/reconstruction) of identity 10 11 Nussbaum, ‘The Professor of Parody’ Nussbaum, ‘The Professor of Parody’ Nussbaum, ‘The Professor of Parody’ For examples, see Bristow and Broughton, The Infernal Desires of Angela Carter