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Title |
Countersexual Bodies: Techniques of Transformation in Dongfang Bai's "Tails" |
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Author |
Chou, Yin-Chang |
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Doctoral Student, Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, National Chengchi University |
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Abstract |
This article introduces "countersexual bodies" as a critical framework for reinterpreting "Tails," a short story by the influential postwar Taiwanese writer Dongfang Bai (Lin Wen-de, 1938-). Engaging with contemporary transgender theory, especially concepts of bodily transformation, gender dysphoria, and medical governance, this study interrogates how the narrative negotiates gender binarism and compulsory heterosexuality. The protagonist’s bodily modifications are not simply processes of disciplinary conformity; rather, they reveal the ways in which gender identity is actively produced, regulated, and inscribed through the interplay of medical technologies and social norms. Moving beyond readings that treat the body as a metaphor for national allegory, this analysis foregrounds bodily techniques, discursive power, and the pervasive influence of medical discourse both within and beyond the text. Particular attention is paid to hormones as fundamental technologies of bodily governance that construct and sustain the intelligibility of gendered bodies. Importantly, the concept of "countersexual bodies" is not imposed as a contemporary transgender identity category but is instead mobilized to illuminate the contradictions and tensions between bodily technologies, social regulation, and the binary gender system. By adopting this perspective, the article aims to broaden methodological approaches to gender in Taiwanese literary studies and to highlight the latent critique of bodily discipline and compulsory heterosexuality embedded in early Taiwanese fiction. |
