Transformation as Resistance: Agentic Alterations of Self in Jasmine, Gone Girl, and The Vegetarian

For women, to defy masculinist systems necessarily requires seizing control of selfhood and identity. Reclaiming that control is an act of agency often marked by a strategic change in physical appearance-perhaps a reflection of some inner change-which allows women to either escape or defy the gendered demands placed upon them by the oppressive masculinist cultures surrounding them. This thesis addresses three postmodern works of fiction: Bharati Mukherjee's 1989 novel Jasmine, in which the titular woman protagonist immigrates to the United States after the death of her husband, subsequently changing her name and physical appearance multiple times in the interest of survival and desire; Gillian Flynn's 2012 novel Gone Girl, a tale of revenge against an unfaithful lover in which the sociopathic protagonist takes advantage of societal gender norms to frame her husband for murder; and Han Kang's 2014 novel The Vegetarian, in which the woman subject, Yeong-hye, transitions from human to plant to escape the violent culture oppressing her. This thesis focuses specifically on postmodern fictive women subjects who physically alter their identities in a way which may reflect a potential metaphysical change in their self and always functions as a calculated means to either escape, defy, or take advantage of violent masculinist systems and their attendant gender norms. I explore each novel's relationship with agency, and transformation, and the use of identity as a tool to inspire or aid transformation. I assert that the three novels are linked by agentic action in the following areas: resistance to gendered norms and expectations, resilience in the face of masculinist systems of oppression, and the deliberate, strategic utilization of physical and metaphysical change in identity to achieve those ends. I conclude from analyses of these transformations that despite their occurring within the bounds of oppressive masculinist cultures-and in each case failing to alter those cultures-their agentic nature is not negated.