Gender Performativity and The Politics of Silence

A Butlerian Analysis of Alex Michaelides’ The Silent Patient (2019)

Abstract

This research article employs Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity to examine Alex Michaelides’ The Silent Patient (2019) with an exclusive focus on Alicia Berenson’s silence as a rejection of the deep-seated social norms about gender. Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity proposes that gender is performative, ‘a performance’ by the individual using one’s actions and behaviors instead of being something innate, inherent or intrinsic. Butler’s (1990) idea refutes the traditional and customary social norms that dictate the lives of males and females. The Silent Patient (2019), a psychological thriller, effectively delineates Butlerian gender performativity through a repudiation of customary societal norms by its complex characters. This research employs the Butlerian theory of gender performativity to probe Alicia Berenson’s silence as a performative resistance and defiance against social constructedness of gender binaries and patriarchy led gender binarism. Using techniques such as close reading and textual analysis, it focuses on Alicia Berenson’s silence and her complex character arc to show how her transgressive performance of gender is the unconventional act that subverts traditional feminine gender roles of emotional maturity and transparency expected from women in society. This article aims to contribute to the comprehension of contemporary literature’s engagement with feminist gender theory by demonstrating the disruption of customary societal gender-based expectations in contemporary fiction through Alicia’s silence, unconventional gender performativity and nonverbal articulation through painting.