Beyond trans* medicalisation: hapticality and the art of crafting trans*masculine identities in Ali Smith's How to be both (2014).

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented rise in trans* representation in literature, with works of fictions that go from critically acclaimed best sellers like Torrey Peters' Detransition Baby (2021) to Booker-Prize winner postcolonial-centred study of non-binary characters in Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other (2019). In this blossoming context of exploring trans* voices, Ali Smith's How to be both (2014) breaks the mould in its defiance of traditional representations of transivity, usually grounded on medico-legal discourses. Following the precept of transnormativity as well as the theories of hapticality of Jeanne Vaccaro and Laura Marks, which respectively explore the possibilities of trans* identity perceived as a collective process of crafting and the potential found in a haptical approach to the visual, I hereby discuss Smith's representation of trans*masculine identity outside the regime of medicine. Pivoting around Smith's conceptualisation of 'the painter self', an original reinterpretation of trans* identity as expressed and crafted through the arts and the feeling of touch, I offer an analysis of the continual process of becoming of trans* Renaissance character Francescho del Cossa. Moreover, I offer analyses on the impact others may have on one's own trans* identity, with an interest on the trans* joy that comes from acceptance and on the role of arts to outgrow the pain that comes from rejection. Finally, I examine the role of the visual in the artistic representation of transivity, where Smith defies the limits of time, portraying trans* identity as the true never-ending process.