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• TW O • Narrative: The Elastic Projec t All classes , al l huma n groups , hav e thei r narratives , enjoyment o f which i s very often share d b y men with different, eve n opposing, cultural backgrounds. —Roland Barthes, Image, Music, Text No repetition can ever be identical, but my story carries with it their stories, their history, and our story repeats itself endlessly despite our persistence in denying it. —Trinh T. Minh-ha, Woman, Native, Other When see n a s a se t o f ideologica l codes , narrativ e i s a n institutio n bu t not a n innocent one , an artificia l syste m bu t not a n arbitrary one . It is a complex syste m tha t encode s bot h sexualit y an d gender , bot h o f whic h rest upo n mal e centrality , bu t i t i s a n historicall y determine d structur e rather tha n a Platoni c absolute . Thos e writer s wh o have , i n recen t years, explored it s gender an d sexua l biase s have identified tw o primar y patterns: the heterosexual, asymmetrical gender pattern an d a pattern of male bondin g which , accordin g t o Ev e Sedgwick , i s als o heterosexua l and dependen t o n a femal e Other . Wester n culture' s tw o mos t promi nent genres , romanti c an d heroi c stories , depen d o n thes e gende r an d sexual alignments. Lesbians are neither an integral nor structural part of either genre . Feminis t writer s o f theor y an d literatur e hav e probe d th e recesses o f ho w storie s operat e i n ou r culture , an d whil e man y hav e despaired o f narrative' s power , other s hav e recognize d th e mean s t o challenge it . I t i s easie r t o despair . I n wha t Gayl e Green e migh t cal l "feminist metafiction " (i) , Ann e Sexto n an d Margare t Atwoo d hav e proffered poeti c narrative s whic h depic t wome n i n th e stranglehol d o f the narrativ e system—Atwoo d o f th e heroi c narrative , Sexto n o f th e romantic narrative. While neither is a postmodern theoris t or a narratologist , eac h o f thei r poeti c interrogation s o f th e Wester n narrativ e i s a s 26 Narrative • 21 astute and a s thorough a s anyone who has wielded the terms "subjectiv ity " and "narrativity. " But while each looks for a n alternative story, and while th e narrativ e i s elasti c enoug h t o encompas s othe r possibilities , neither can imagine that story as a lesbian narrative . In "Circe/Mu d Poems, " Margaret Atwoo d retell s Ulysses' sojourn o n Circe's isl e fro m Circe' s poin t o f view . A s a reade r o f th e West' s ur narrative , of its primary quest story, Circe is aware of being trapped in a story—and a n island—no t o f he r makin g o r telling , and , a s sh e say s late in this sequence of poems: "It' s the story that counts. No us e telling me this isn' t a story,/or no t th e sam e story " (221) . It is the samenes s of this story , a stor y whic h ha s bee n repeate d fro m pre-histor y t o th e feminist 1970 s (the poems were published in 1974), that traps the femal e speaker, "an d th e stor y i s ruthless" (221) . In positing a femal e speake r attempting t o understan d th e inevitabilit y o f a syste m tha t ha s deter mined th e position s Ulysse s an d sh e ar e t o occup y i n th e heroi c story , Atwood posit s this repeatable stor y as a violent, anti-feminis t system . In effect sh e analyze s th e narrativ e syste m whic h determine s ho w storie s are told in our culture—wh...

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