Meanings Around the Transsexual Body

The Medico-Scientific Discourse in David Ebershoff’s The Danish Girl

Abstract

This article aims to discuss meanings related to the transsexual body through the medico-scientific discourse used to construct the character of Lili Elbe, a transsexual woman, in David Ebershoff's The Danish Girl. The theoretical framework includes studies on an interdisciplinary queer approach in applied linguistics (MOITA LOPES, 2006; FABRICIO, 2017; BUTLER, 1990; SALIH, 2017; MISKOLCI, 2017), as well as on transsexual corporeality in medico-scientific discourse (BENTO, 2008, 2014; CASSANA, 2018; DENARDIN, 2019). The methodological framework is that of analytical and interpretative research. For data generation, selected extracts from Ebershoff’s novel were analyzed to verify how the medico-scientific discourse is constructed throughout the narrative. In the story, the main character Lili or Einar Wegener is described as someone who lives within a dual process that sways between two different personas, one male (Einar) and one female (Lili, who emerges over the course of the plot). Even though this character uses medico-scientific discourse(s) as a means of self-justification, it comes forth as collaboration with the pathologizing process associated with transsexual women, still largely viewed as carriers of personality disorders related to sexuality. Results indicate the establishment of an essentiality between gender identity and sexuality, based on the interrelatedness of medico-scientific discourses and the binary gender essentialism found in society (man/woman, male/female). This phenomenon fails to legitimize the social standing of trans people, who have always been a part of society.