The Naming of Oedipa Maas

This article examines the act of naming in The Crying of Lot 49 and its relevance to the gendering of Oedipa's pursuit of knowledge. By examining the grand narratives implied by Oedipa's name, the paper explores the potential for this novel to be a feminist narrative which makes statements about the female religious role and the position of women in relation to psychoanalysis.The novel is considered against its contemporaneous cultural climate in terms of the second wave of feminism, the discovery of previously suppressed religious texts and the emerging emphasis on psychoanalytic discourse in everyday speech.