Publisher:ISCCAC
Affective Intensity and Gender Generation: Deconstructing the Binary Opposition in “A Dill Pickle”
Volume 21, Issue 12 (Part 2), 2025
Authors
Haoran Xi
Corresponding Author
Haoran Xi
Publishing Date
December 31, 2025
Keywords
Affect, Intensity, Binary opposition, Becoming-woman, Mansfield.
Abstract
This paper employs Deleuze-Massumi's affect theory to read the female/male binary in Katherine Mansfield's “A Dill Pickle”. By mapping three affective moments along an “intensity-sign” axis, it shows how the heroine's “becoming-woman” dissolves the binary when intensity exceeds signification. Affect, therefore, functions as a pre-personal force that renders gender categories inoperative.
Copyright
© 2025, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license
