Pretending, Performance, and Escape

Abstract

In this essay, I examine the imaginative act of pretending in fiction as a performance of gender roles, as a survival and coping mechanism, and as a means of escaping from the harsh truths of reality. I argue that while pretending is often a way for women conform to strict socially and religiously imposed gender roles, pretending can also be a way of for women to imagine and inhabit alternate worlds that offer temporary relief from reality’s social and factual constraints. I discuss my work in conversation with the works of other fiction writers whose characters and stories engage with pretending, including Alice Munro, Jamel Brinkley, and Yiyun Li. Through their characters, each of these writers explores the various circumstances that necessitate pretending and offers a unique perspective on what Jamel Brinkley calls “the performative self and the actual self.”