Binary Prisons: Boundaries on Embodiment in Caleb Williams

Abstract

In the following essays, several critical analyses of Caleb Williams will be scrutinized as will social stigmas regarding the construction of a gay identity. Beginning with a woman's creation in volume one, we will examine the potential to re-cite the referents of hegemony. The second chapter depicts the spiritualization of sex into gender, an activity which falsely centralizes power in genitals. While examining this centralization, the spiritualized penis or phallus will unfold as a theatre with its own set of delegated roles. Finally, the act of reading will be examined as it pertains to Caleb's search for Falkland's influence. The prison emerges through reading.