Monstrous Women: Feminism in Terry Pratchettʼs Monstrous Regiment

Abstract

This paper analyzes the treatment of equal rights for women in Terry Pratchettʼs Discworld novel, Monstrous Regiment. Throughout the novel, the main female character, Polly, and several other recruits, are women but disguise themselves as young men in order to join the army. The theories of bisociation, simulacra, and Lacanʼs the real are used in order to analyze how the comedy within this fantasy novel is created and how it aids the reader in recognizing the Lacanian real. Messages of the real within the text include ideas surrounding gender: how men have delineated gender for men and women and how these dictates have limited womenʼs rights.