Anderson, Carolyn. No Fixed Point

• Author: Anderson, Carolyn
• Title: No Fixed Point: Gender and Blood Feuds in Njal's Saga
• Published in: Philological Quarterly, 81/4
• Year: 202
• Pages: 421-40
• E-text: ProQuest
• Reference: Anderson, Carolyn. „ No Fixed Point: Gender and Blood Feuds in Njal's Saga.“ Philological Quarterly, 81/4 (2002): 421-440

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Annotation

In this article, Anderson discusses the role of gender in blood feuds, primarily citing examples from Njal’s saga. While departing from Richard F. Allen’s ‘vengeful woman figure’ motif, Anderson suggests that, instead of there being a strict, hierarchical binary which governs gender behavior, gender roles are in fact governed by identity, and because identity is inherently unstable so too is the role of gender. Anderson approaches the topic from a constructionist stand and uses examples from Njal’s saga to illustrate how the social construction of gender roles relates to power, violence, and kin relationships. Her main point is that, while there are exceptions to traditional gender roles to be found in Njal’s saga, in general, vengeance and violence are primarily male actions, while passivity and speechcraft are distinctly feminine. Anderson posits that the greater social mobility that men possessed allowed for a more dynamic engagement with gender identity, which highlights that gender was not clearly demarcated at all times. Finally, she argues that symbolic acts of honor and vengeance are performative expressions of masculine identity, and that because identity is a process, men can refuse to perform these acts despite expectations and assume more feminine roles whether on purpose or through inaction.

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• Written by: Zachary Cole
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