Sarrasine is a frame narrative recounting the time when a man named Jean Ernest Sarrasine fell in love with La Zambinella, an Italian singer.
That is, until he finds out that she is in fact, a man–a castrato.
As such, Zambinella’s voice is high, and he assumes women’s clothing on stage. La Zambinella had played along as a woman (to the amusement of his fellows), but when he realizes the extent of Sarrasine’s passion, he reveals that he is a man.
The revelation places Sarrasine in an indignant fit of rage. The book in many ways assumes gothic horror; it would have been absolutely shocking for its day (there is no dramatic irony; the audience is horrified with Sarrasine).
Balzac is clearly testing the waters of the unconventional in a culture which fears it.
One major set of philosophical themes concerns competing conceptions of the self and its relation to the sexed body and to gender.
Biological sex is often distinguished from gender, taken as the cultural roles assigned on the basis of sex).
Is the self prior to the institution of gender identity?
Is sex the “hardware” on which the program of gender is run,
or is sex itself thoroughly cultural?
If the self is irrevocably immersed in cultural gender, how is resistance to gender oppression possible at all?
That is, until he finds out that she is in fact, a man–a castrato.
As such, Zambinella’s voice is high, and he assumes women’s clothing on stage. La Zambinella had played along as a woman (to the amusement of his fellows), but when he realizes the extent of Sarrasine’s passion, he reveals that he is a man.
The revelation places Sarrasine in an indignant fit of rage. The book in many ways assumes gothic horror; it would have been absolutely shocking for its day (there is no dramatic irony; the audience is horrified with Sarrasine).
Balzac is clearly testing the waters of the unconventional in a culture which fears it.
One major set of philosophical themes concerns competing conceptions of the self and its relation to the sexed body and to gender.
Biological sex is often distinguished from gender, taken as the cultural roles assigned on the basis of sex).
Is the self prior to the institution of gender identity?
Is sex the “hardware” on which the program of gender is run,
or is sex itself thoroughly cultural?
If the self is irrevocably immersed in cultural gender, how is resistance to gender oppression possible at all?
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