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Narrative and Identity Construction in the Pacific Islands
Edited by Farzana Gounder
[Studies in Narrative 21] 2015
► pp. 243–258

Embodied silent narratives of masculinities

Some perspectives from Guam Chamorros

Post-structural and post-modern theories have understood the concept of gender as a “fictitious” element rooted exclusively in a linguistic reality (see Butler, 1990), constituted by an illusory metaphysic of substances. Therefore, for these schools, “there is no gender identity behind the expression of gender” and consequently, gender is exclusively “performatively constituted” (Butler, 1990, 25), mainly as an “effect” of discursive practices. However, if we consider narrative in its wider anthropological sense, we should include not only non-verbal narratives, but also what the anthropology of experience name the “arguments of images” that may or may not have their source in language (see Fernandez, 1986, 164). We analyse this visual narrative through a consideration of Guam Chamorros’ constructions of masculinity.

Published online: 20 May 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.21.13fru
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