Cloud Nine, As Butler Likes it

Abstract

My aim in this article is to investigate the patriarchal forces over marginalized groups and to scrutinize Judith Butler’s notion of performativity and parody in Cloud Nine (1979), a famous play by caryl Churchill, the contemporary British playwright. What I seek to argue here is to explicate how Churchill tries to show the blurred identities between the characters, social construction of gender, and the play’s comic and aesthetic effects. In this sense, I aim to investigate how social construction of gender is related to blurred boundaries. In this sense, I focus on Judith Butler’s idea of gender instability and the connection between gender and performativity as well as cross-gender casting and drag or cross- dressing. Key words: patriarchy; gender performativity; parody; blurred boundaries; social construction of gender; drag