Embodied ambivalence: Reiterating and transforming phallocentrism in The Pillow Book

This study examines Peter Greenaway's film The Pillow Book as a site of ambivalence and explores the relationship between the body and text and, more importantly, how the body enacts gender, power, and sexuality. The essay draws on Judith Butler's notions of ambivalent space and subversive performances to illuminate the ways in which The Pillow Book both articulates patriarchal subjugation of the female body and opens a space where such oppressive phallic inscriptions are displaced and resignified. The essay maintains that The Pillow Book both constrains and enables, that it colonizes and creates new political possibilities for the subordinated female body.

Keywords:

• The Pillow Book
• Peter Greenaway
• Body
• Phallocentrism