Woman-Man and Woman-Animal: The Taboo of Hybrid Identities in Olga Tokarczuk’s Works

Abstract

Taboo does not just indicate a sacred entity, it also designates a dangerous and uncanny prohibition, as illustrated in Freud’s Totem and Taboo (1913). This last interpretation typically stems from something deviating from the norm that evokes fear and is therefore marginalised. The offensive label “menstrual literature” coined by male Polish critics can stand as an example. This tag was supposed to define the rising number of female authors in the 1990s who were considered inadequate and too eccentric in their way of portraying the world. In wider terms, whether they were narrative voices or fictional characters, unconventional women were perceived as dangerous and monstrous. This paper sets out to show the case of the Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk who in some of her works has represented new hybrid identities as the woman-man and the woman-animal challenging the boundaries between mankind and the human or non-human ‘other’.