FEMALE IDENTITY IN PAULA VOGEL’S HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE

Abstract

Li’l Bit is the main character of Paula Vogel’s play How I Learned
to Drive (1997). The audience witnesses in this play the formation
of the female identity mainly in sexual terms. In other words, Li’l
Bit forms her identity as a female through her growing body since
the age of eleven. Her family mocks her growing body. There are
sexual taunts made by her peers in the school as well. As Li’l Bit
enters puberty, she is recognized in the school only because of
her large breasts. Li’l Bit feels alienated from her body. Thus,
family, culture, society, and school’s abuse of her body
participates in forming her identity. Vogel is expressing a public
issue here about female identity formation. It is a process that is
affected by various outer factors that shape Li’l Bit or any
woman’s identity. Although the female sexual identity defines a
woman, she is not the one who defines it. The world around her
defines her identity.

Authors

Rasha Abdulmunem Azeez Al-Abdullah

Keywords

pedophilia, molesting, taboo, traumatic past, the body.

Publication Information

Volume

8

Issue

62

Year

2021

Language

Turkish

Status

Published

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DOI

10.17121/ressjournal.3001

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