Siri Hustvedt is one of the few contemporary US-American authors who consistently engages with
the questions of seeing and perceiving in her work. However despite the growing academic
interest in her narratives many aspects related to the depiction of these fundamental
practices have been left unaddressed in the criticism. This study aims to fill this gap by
examining the concepts of seeing and perceiving as represented in both her fictional and
nonfictional writings published to date and argues that Hustvedt's texts reveal the deep
entanglement of the senses that inform a meaningful human experience. Drawing on phenomenology
and feminist epistemology this study highlights Hustvedt's interest in embodied cultural
habits and implicit forms of knowledge that play a crucial role in the ways people perceive the
world and each other. Through the motif of gender masquerade her narratives explore how the
ideas about femininity and masculinity shape people's perceptions and interactions.
