Power and identity in Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex

The main objective in this thesis is to point out the mechanisms that govern, and have governed, identity formation in the United States as played out in the novel Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Looking more closely at how the characters are influenced by the powers and norms that govern their options, their place in society and their possibilities for a fulfilling life of personal freedom, the analysis in this thesis has concentrated on three main areas as these are portrayed in Middlesex: 1. Gender identity and sexual categorization 2. Race and whiteness 3. Immigration, class and the American Dream For a most part, this is a close reading of Middlesex, dwelling on the identity possibilities of the intersex protagonist Cal/lie, and especially his/her quest for self-identification. Employing the theories of Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Louis Pierre Althusser, Emmanuel Levinas and Anne Fausto-Sterling, this thesis seeks an understanding of mirrored oppressions as they are rendered within the novel and as they exist in Western society at large