Gender and sexuality building identity in Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex

The current study presents the thematic characteristics and history of the Bildungsroman and its origins in the German literature and its flourishing in the English literature. The terms of gender and sexuality are also defined in the study. The aim of the present thesis is to analyze the postmodernist author Jeffrey EUGENIDES's Middlesex which deals with the "new" American identities of the second and third generation Greek immigrants who live in the US, and to present it through the protagonist of the novel, Calliope/Cal's point of view. The present study displays how the events and actions in the novel make it possible to be regarded as a Bildungsroman in terms of gender and sexual identity formation of Calliope/Cal. Identity formation, ethnicity and generation gap as well as the interaction between generations are presented by the novelist benefiting from myths and mythical heroes. The study reflects how the expectations of the family and society impact identity formation as well as the 5-alpha reductase disease, which results in the intersex condition of Calliope/Cal. In a world, which becomes more and more global each day, the protagonist of the novel is an intersex person, a minority in terms of gender and sexuality but also a Greek-American, a minority in terms of ethnicity. The history of the country and the globalization of the world are reflected through the protagonist. Cal/Calliope is born twice. When he is born the second time, he begins to grasp the world better. The novel, Middlesex, can be regarded as a Bildungsroman when it is analyzed in terms of gender and sexuality and the novel, in general, presents the postmodernist thematic concerns of immigration, generation gaps, inclusion of myths and mythical heroes into the contemporary life and identity formation. Key Words: the Bildungsroman, gender and sexuality, Eugenides, Middlesex, intersex