Uncomfortable Connections? Conjoined Sisterhood in Contemporary Women's Writing

The concept of “sisterhood” has been a compelling trope for thinking about bonds between women in feminist politics. However, it has also generated fierce debate, receiving criticism for idealizing familial bonds and installing an illusory equality between women of different races, sexualities, and bodies. This article explores the representation of conjoined twin sisters in two novels by contemporary women writers: Sarah Rayne’s A Dark Dividing (2004) and Lori Lansens’s The Girls (2005). Engaging with the ways in which disability studies have criticized the use of metaphors of extraordinary bodies in feminist theory, I argue that the motif of conjoinment in these texts provides a lens through which to discuss several key issues of feminist disability studies: the possibilities of thinking beyond a “minoritizing” view of disability; the regulatory discourses of medicine and heterosexuality; the potential – and perils – of using conjoined sisterhood as a metaphor

Aesthetics · Art · Criticism · Disability studies · Human sexuality · Literature · Metaphor · Motif (music · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Sociology · Trope (literature · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Short Stories in Global Literature · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy

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