Gender Performativity and Economic Identity in Good Person of Szechwan

Abstract

This article examines the intersection of gender performativity and economic identity in The Good Person of Szechwan, arguing that the dual persona of Shen Teh/Shui Ta is not merely a psychological or economic necessity but a structurally gendered response to capitalist conditions. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of performativity and Bertolt Brecht’s concept of the alienation effect, the study demonstrates that gender in the play operates as a contingent and strategic performance shaped by material exigencies. Shen Teh’s socially coded femininity—marked by compassion, self-sacrifice, and ethical obligation—proves economically unsustainable, necessitating the adoption of the masculine persona of Shui Ta, who embodies rationality, authority, and capitalist pragmatism. The paper further proposes that this identity-switching functions through a proto-algorithmic logic, wherein subjectivity is determined by situational demands rather than psychological continuity. In this framework, femininity aligns with moral expenditure, while masculinity facilitates economic survival and accumulation. By foregrounding the performative and functional nature of identity, the article repositions gender as an economic technology within Brecht’s dramaturgy. Ultimately, the study argues that the play exposes the structural incompatibility between ethical goodness and capitalist survival, while simultaneously revealing the failure of divine justice to reconcile this contradiction.