Ernest Hemingway’s Heroines from Puppets to Puppeteers: the Case of Brett Ashley in Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises and Catherine Bourne in The Garden of E
Ernest Hemingway’s Heroines from Puppets to Puppeteers: the Case of Brett Ashley in Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises and Catherine Bourne in The Garden of E

Summary/Abstract: The paper wishes to explore the way in which two of the most controversial heroines in Ernest Hemingway’s fiction, Brett Ashley and Catherine Bourne, may be read through the feminist lens of the binary oppositions introduced by Helene Cixous in her essay “Sorties: Out and Out: Attacks/Ways Out/ Forays” (1975). Although traditional critical interpretations position these characters on one side of the binary oppositions, they are, in fact, more complex than having previously been given credit. They are both insecure and destructive, dependent and independent, both in search of their true identity which seems to surpass the boundaries of patriarchally accepted norms. As a result, they erase boundaries and undermine stereotypes, allowing the reader to decipher their puzzled identities and lives.

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