Transgressive Genres: Identity Claims Through Form

Sor Juana wrote philosophy in the form of plays, theology as poetry, and scientific argument through personal narrative—genres traditionally unavailable to women. By transgressing the boundaries of established forms, she asserted intellectual authority despite categorical restrictions. Transgressive genres describes how choosing or inventing unconventional forms becomes an identity strategy. Across cultures, formal conventions carry gendered, class, and cultural baggage: who 'naturally' writes philosophy, who can perform on stage, whose narrative counts as legitimate knowledge? By working in forms beyond prescribed categories, individuals challenge the boundaries that constrain their identities. This applies to contemporary cultural expression: nontraditional memoir, hybrid genres, multimedia identity performance, and interdisciplinary work all challenge categorical identities. Sor Juana's example shows that formal innovation is not merely aesthetic—it is political and ontological. By writing in forms reserved for others, she claimed the identity and authority those forms represented. This framework helps explain how marginalized individuals use creative form-breaking to assert complex identities that dominant systems cannot easily categorize or dismiss.