Abstract
The paper considers the theme of visibility in relation to space and the gendered body in the work of Virginia Woolf and Jean Rhys. Both authors explore the passage of their heroines through the urban setting of the street as an experience which is by no means gender-neutral.
The female body is fixed by gendered social codes as well as the male gaze within the city space. The theory of the male gaze is pertinent to the exploration of the theme of a woman walking in public space and her consciousness of her visibility.
Much has been written about what it means for men to look at women but it must also be examined how women imagine themselves being watched, a phenomenon described by John Berger. Internalisation of the male gaze forms women's perception and experience of the relation body-city in specific ways and raises the question of its transgression.
Furthermore, the sense of surveillance and the policed body can be seen through the lens of Foucault's description of the Panopticon and the related dynamics of power which produce self-consciousness and self-regulation of the moving subject. At the same time, spatial theory is engaged to shed light on how the space itself contributes to the production of such a body.