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• S E V E N • Conclusion What we are about is re-metaphoring the world. —Marilyn Frye, Willful Virgin Narrative is , as Roland Barthe s has said, everywhere (Image 79) , and a s such, it is or shoul d b e a recognizable part o f our theoretica l project s a s well a s our fiction. Nowher e i s this structure mor e apparen t tha n i n th e generational antagonis m tha t pit s on e theor y o r "ism " agains t another . Relying o n problemati c assumption s o f bette r insigh t o r a differen t context, a younge r generatio n claim s t o surpas s it s elders i n vision an d in truth . I n th e clas h wit h th e evi l predecessor , th e monste r Error , th e more theoreticall y sophisticated , usuall y younge r writer s supplan t an d conquer their adversary, setting up a simple linear narrative trajectory i n which trut h triumph s ove r erro r an d naivete . Lesbian-feminis m stand s accused o f bot h faults . Bu t th e proble m wit h lesbia n postmodernism' s claim i s no t it s arroganc e bu t it s narrativity . Whe n thi s ne w theor y condemns a dangerou s ideologica l model , th e maste r narrative , an d proposes, instead , anti-narrativ e a s a n ideal , the iron y i s thick. Lesbia n postmodernism, I would contend , has set up such an ironic paradigm, in the process maligning the very theoretical shoulder s on which it stands. By refusing t o acknowledge its own complicity in the master narrativ e and it s concomitant gende r ideology , lesbian postmodernis m i s doome d to repea t th e sam e fallacies . Thus , in a Foucauldian sense , lesbian post modernism act s as an instrument o f ideological containmen t a s much a s a tool o f subversion . I t functions a s a means o f ideologica l containmen t not only in its reliance on a n implied narrativ e but also in its acceptanc e of notion s suc h a s gende r undecidabilit y an d indeterminancy . Rathe r than actin g as a displacement o f the gender binary , especially a s it exists in th e narrativ e system , gende r indeterminanc y maintain s th e center / margin patter n o f Wester n culture . I t reinstitutes th e gende r neutralis m of libera l enlightmen t philosophy , leavin g u s onc e agai n blin d t o th e 195 196 • Conclusio n gender structur e underlyin g term s suc h a s "objectivity " an d "th e quee r subject." Lesbia n postmodernism , i n acceptin g gende r neutrality , rein vents th e hidde n gende r dichotom y tha t allow s th e mal e t o occup y th e structural cente r an d femal e t o forag e o n th e margins . I would sugges t instead tha t shift s i n theory nee d t o be recognized a s part o f a differen t narrative movement, one that complicates rather than destroy s what ha s preceded i t an d on e tha t acknowledge s th e flexibility a s wel l a s th e power embedde d i n th e Wester n narrativ e system . In thi s way , no t only wil l curren t theor y restructur e it s theoretical narrativ e i n comple x interaction with its predecessor, but it may also acknowledge the elusiveness , complexity, and diversity of the lesbian narrative . My intention ha s been to outline a structural way to describe divers e stories o f th e las t twenty-fiv e year s unde r th e rubri c o f th e lesbia n narrative. This approach depend s on expanded and , I realize, controver sial definitions o f bot h lesbia n an d narrative . I have argued tha t twenti eth -century wome n writer s hav e develope d tw o expanded , nonclinica l meanings fo r lesbian , bot h o f whic h depen d o n a...

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