Gender Performativity: A Study of Elizabeth's Gender Identity in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Judith Butler's "Gender performativity" starts with the deconstruction of subjectivity and denies the certainty of gender identity, and then believes that gender identity is in a state of floating flow through repeated performances. In Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a mash-up novel adapted from Pride and Prejudice by American screenwriter Graham Smith in 2009, the gender identity of the heroine Elizabeth is not given a static "cultural marker", but is in the process of continuous construction. Under the guide of Butler's "Gender performativity", this paper analyzes Elizabeth's performance of femininity and masculinity, and then discusses the significance of this unstable gender identity to dissolving the traditional gender norms in the patriarchal culture, so as to explore more diversified individual survival value of women.