Androgyny in Dowson’s The Pierrot of the Minute

Abstract

This article examines the fluid gender boundaries embodied in the figure of Pierrot in Christopher Dowson’s The Pierrot of the Minute. The central pivot of this slight play is the ambivalent figure of Pierrot and his relationship with the Moon Maiden. An exploration of Dowson’s work will endeavour to show that the figure of Pierrot and the Moon Maiden may be considered as outward manifestations of a single androgynous entity. Their androgynous transgression of gender norms will be explored by investigation of the semiotic subversion found in what Julia Kristeva terms the double aspect of language. This is found in the ambivalence of words which are given a new meaning while still retaining the old meaning, thus possessing two significations or a ‘one and other’. This double nature or ambivalence of the word forms the basis of poetic language, which is best expressed through the dream logic associated with carnival. This dream logic transgresses the symbolic laws of language and of socially accepted conventions. By making use of Julia Kristeva’s reading of poetic language and the carnival as representing something more subtle than mere reversal of roles, this article also plans to show that the world of Dowson’s play is inherently subversive.