Rewriting Beckett, Revoicing Women: A Sociocognitive Study of Gender Subversion in Beckett’s All That Fall and Wheatley’s Stravaig

This paper critically examines the representation of female agency in the form of revoicing women and gender subversion in Samuel Beckett’s All That Fall and David Wheatley’s Stravaig. Dealing with the methodological perspective, Louise Rosenblatt’s transactional reader-response theory and Teun A. van Dijk’s model of sociocognitive discourse studies (SCDS) model have been employed for the analysis of the texts. Further, the analysis reveals how both works challenge traditional gender roles while remaining tethered to the prevailing societal norms. The research concludes that Maddy Rooney (All That Fall) embodies resilience amid existential despair, subverting stereotypes through her vocalized desires, yet her agency is constrained by cultural expectations. Moreover, Aisling (Stravaig) disrupts patriarchal frameworks by dominating domestic and intellectual discourse, though her defiance does not fully invert gender hierarchies. Therefore, the study in hand contributes to Beckett scholarship by situating his work within contemporary and stereotypical gender discourse and underscores the sociocognitive interplay between text, reader, and cultural ideology in shaping female representation.