Pearl's body : spotting an identity

Abstract

Throughout Pearl, a Middle-English poem presumably created by the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an alteration is taking place. The body of Pearl is presented as previously infantile and feminine, and thus alien to the notion of possessing, an entity contacted via the sense of touch. The visionary encounter the Dreamer has with his lost property, often interpreted as the figure representing his child, places the focus of the contact onto the sense of sight, which is associated also with the physical distance imposed onto the two characters. The change of Pearl’s identity, or maybe even the fact of her having acquired one, may be viewed in the light of the theory of childhood created by Jacques Lacan and its feminist critique, or even its reworking, accomplished by Luce Irigaray. Hence Pearl can be perceived as a character who has transcended the boundary of the mirror stage, and as a female child masculinized under the influence of the Law-of-the-Father. [fragm. tekstu]