Playing the Breeches Part: Feminist Appropriations, Biographical Fictions and Colonial Contexts in Patricia Duncker’s James Miranda Barry (1999)

This chapter examines a fictional reconstruction of the life of the Irish-born and Scottish-educated colonial military surgeon James Miranda Barry (c. 1799–1865), whose memory has been irrevocably shaped by reports that he was discovered after death to be female bodied. It argues that the feminist narrative of strategic gender crossing which characterises most versions of Barry’s life emerges in displaced form in the novel; in this way, Barry’s transgender (or intersex) identity serves as a vehicle through which women can express agency and pursue ambition in vicarious fashion. Barry’s career took place in the theatre of empire but the racial politics of this era of British history are often overlooked in both biographical and fictional accounts of Barry’s life; close attention to the treatment of colonial contexts will serve to demonstrate the role of white privilege and the construction of racial ‘others’ in these narratives.

Trans Issues

The chapter examines trans films and their reception. It draws on philosophical and theoretical texts about trans and intersex identity politics. It reviews trans activism as related to France and Spain and the place of trans films in LGBTQ festivals. In the main analysis some respondents are seen to express a negotiated form of empathy that transmits their solidarity with the issues portrayed while underlining their difference from the films’ trans subjects. Other participants are shown to identify accounts that resonate with their own journeys towards acceptance and emancipation. Particularities of national culture and contexts are little mentioned by respondents and the chapter suggests that this attests to the transnational relevance and salience of the films’ broader discourses on gender identity.