Abstract

The Modesty Wrap is a collection of short stories that explores the tensions between self-constructed male identity and the limits/demands of the human body. Each story makes use of a first person narrator whose identity, created through language and societal interpellation, is undercut, challenged or transformed through the inescapable presence of the physical body. Illness, physical accidents, and death pose challenges to the characters' conceptions of themselves and their place in the world. The tension inherent in the body versus identity conflict is paralleled in the characters' (often failed) attempts to negotiate a space between the seemingly inescapable biological composition of the body, and a somewhat body-less, more queer, fluid construction of sexuality.