We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
THE MODERN PYGMALION: CROSSING BOUNDARIES IN PETER GOLDSWORTHY'S WISH.
- Authors
Villanueva Romero, Diana
- Abstract
Peter Goldsworthy's novel Wish (1995) narrates an unusual love story, that between the female gorilla Eliza and her Sign teacher John James. It can be interpreted as a re-writing of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (1912) where a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, is turned into a lady thanks to her training in proper speech by professor of phonetics Henry Higgins. Both works depict language experiments oriented towards social transformation. It can therefore be argued that both works aim, in sum, at dissecting the inequalities of their time and producing an ontological turn. This article therefore aims at analysing the strategies used by Australian author Peter Goldsworthy to dismantle the human/animal binary and demonstrate the contingency of the species boundary based on notions such as verbal language.
- Subjects
WISH (Book : Goldsworthy); PYGMALION (Play : Shaw); SHAW, Bernard, 1856-1950; GOLDSWORTHY, Peter; PHONETICS; SIGN language
- Publication
Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, 2018, Issue 77, p177
- ISSN
0211-5913
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.25145/j.recaesin.2018.77.012