Metaphorical implications of transgender characters in contemporary literature : from figure to language

In my thesis, I reveal the symbolic meaning behind the transgender figures in Samuel\ud Delany???s Trouble on Triton, Patricia Powell???s The Pagoda, and T Cooper???s Lipshitz 6, or\ud Two Angry Blondes, and the transgender language of border transgression that evolves\ud from the figurative connotations. At the most obvious level, the transgender identities of\ud the characters in the novels I explore signify a subversion of conventional gender\ud categories, but at a more complicated metaphorical level, the gender transgression also\ud symbolizes the transgression of other social categories, concepts, and identities in the\ud realm of culture, nationality, race, sexuality, class, language, reality and even category\ud itself. In various ways, each author manipulates narrative structure and language to\ud reflect the transgression symbolized by the transgender figure, and thus, through the\ud interplay of form and content, construct a vision of reality where all social categories of\ud identity, cultural knowledge, and social reality are open, flexible, and change over time