Lived Experience and Literature: Trans Authors, Trans Fiction and Trans Theory

The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate the complex relationship between contemporary trans rights discourses and contemporary trans fiction by trans authors with a critical framework informed by scholarship in the field of trans theory. Trans theory cannot exist separately from lived experience, and I argue that trans authored texts are the written equivalent of lived experience. I state that trans theory is uniquely positioned to consider the impact of theoretical concerns on subjective experience and the ways in which seemingly disparate communities may be linked through shared oppression. In showing that trans theory may be thematically applied to trans texts, this thesis provides the basis for a framework of trans literary analysis that may be applied to all texts. The analysis is presented thematically, covering the topics of essentialism, passing, representation and violence. Each theme is discussed theoretically and then used to analyse two trans authored fiction texts. In order to provide my analysis, I have used and modified Judith Butler’s work on cultural intelligibility and viability (1990, 2008), and Johanne Galtung’s work on types of violence (1969, 1998) as lenses for analysis to better account for the specific ways in which societies have an impact on trans lived experience and oppression. An objective of this thesis is to highlight the importance of trans narratives in society and how their analysis is beneficial both theoretically and socially. My main contributions to knowledge within this thesis are twofold: I create a paradigm for the development of trans theory as a method of literary criticism; and I apply this to the previously under acknowledged genre of trans fiction.