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Vali Gholami

Vali Gholami

Academic rank: Assistant Professor
ORCID:
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 321
Faculty: Faculty of Language and Literature
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Research

Title
Cultural and Social Effects of Deformity in Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and Change Me into Zeus's Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss
Type
Thesis
Keywords
Deformity, Facial Deformity, 5-alfa-reductase Deficiency, Foucault, Jeffrey Eugenides, Barbara Robinette Moss.
Year
2019
Researchers Parisa Hedayati(Student)، Zakarya Bezdoode(PrimaryAdvisor)، Vali Gholami(Advisor)

Abstract

The present research aims to keenly investigate the treatment of deformity in the novel Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and the memoir Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss. Narrated by Calliope (Cal) Stephanides the protagonist, the novel Middlesex depicts the lives of Three generations of Stephanides family. Cal, born as a female (Calliope), is a 5-alfa-reductase hermaphrodite identifying as a male whose condition stems from the marriage of his grandparents who were siblings. 5-alfa-reductase deficiency is a condition which prevents male sexual organs to develop well before birth and during puberty; people with this deficiency are genetically male with one Y and one X chromosome in each cell. Because of not producing enough DHT hormone which has crucial role for male sexual development, the formation of external organs disrupts. Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter is an autobiographical work by Barbara Robinette Moss. Growing up in a poor rural family in Alabama with a charismatic and alcoholic father led to facial deformity of Barbara which was the result of malnutrition, loose of medical and dental care. This research seeks to study the representation of deformity in the selected works and by defining social and cultural meaning of deformity and illustrating different disability theory critics’ viewpoints, analyze the social and cultural obstacles that affect deformed people’s life.