Autonomous Learning Group topics: Gender, Subjectivity, and Performance

Each group should meet for around an hour in advance of the seminar and be prepared to
report back on its discussions in class.

Group 1
How do Carter and Butler reflect on the question of whether identity is given and natural,
on the one hand, or constructed and performative, on the other?

Group 2
Carter is an avowedly feminist writer; how would you characterize her brand of feminism, as
displayed in Nights at the Circus?

Group 3
Carter is often identified as a British exponent of magical realism (a term primarily
associated with Latin American authors such as Gabriel Garca Mrquez and Isabel Allende).
What evidence for this characterization do you find in Nights at the Circus? What is the
appeal of this literary style for writers and readers?