IDENTITIES AT STAKE: UNINTELLIGIBILITY OF THE ‘PHALLIC’ FEMALE IN ANN JELLICOE’S THE SPORT OF MY MAD MOTHER

Year 2015, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 124 - 133, 01.12.2015

Neslihan Yılmaz Demirkaya

Abstract

Although the
notion of identity is assumed to be stable and unchanging in order to reinforce
the binary opposition of the center/self and the ‘other,’ identities are fluid,
and hence they are always at stake, which brings about the recognition that
identities are attached to the subjects through a flimsy thread with a
potential to break loose from them. The anxiety of facing the challenge to
their identities and what they hold so dear to themselves is, this paper
argues, the driving force behind the actions of the most of the characters in
Ann Jellicoe’s 1962 revision of The Sport
of My Mad Mother. Furthermore, elaborating on our insistence on tangible
meanings that are accessible to us, Jellicoe asserts that we desire to attain
the singular meaning of everything, be it a play or a natural phenomenon.
Hence, this paper contends that in an attempt to make us confront this fact and
realise the futility of our pursuit of exactitude and meaningful order,
Jellicoe does not take us gently, but urges and even forces us to take part in
the provisional meaning-making process and come up with our own
interpretations. As the author of this paper, my interpretation will focus on
identity politics with its feminist implications along with a patriarchal
discourse of ethics and responsibility. 

Keywords

Ann Jellicoe, The Sport of My Mad Mother, identity and gender politics, feminism.

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