Looking at the last decades of the 19th and 20th century from our vantage point encourages parallels to be drawn between the two periods： in fact, both are affected by a process of cultural fragmentation, social, and...Looking at the last decades of the 19th and 20th century from our vantage point encourages parallels to be drawn between the two periods： in fact, both are affected by a process of cultural fragmentation, social, and epistemological transformations and crises that permeate the whole civil society. In the specific field of English literature, the genre of the fantastic is undoubtedly a common presence. In Fantasy： The Literature of Subversion, Jackson （1981） noted the re-emergence of the fantastic as a transgressive force at moments of cultural stress and repression. Waugh （1995） held a similar view in The Harvest of the Sixties. At the end of the 20th century, in its postmodernist shape, fantastic literature becomes one of the favourite genres of a number of feminist writers, and among them, Jeanette Winterson transforms it into a truly transgressive genre. This paper examines Winterson＇s The Passion （1996） and Sexing the Cherry （1990） in the light of Jackson＇s theory of the fantastic, as a narrative that establishes an oppositional dialogic relationship with the ＂real＂, to interrogate it and collapse the traditional distinction between the normative and the ＂other＂. In The Passion, the real is signified by the dominant ideological discourse, exemplified by Napoleon; the fantastic by Villanelle＇s webbed feet and her ability to walk on water. In Sexing the Cherry, the real is represented by the Puritans with their bigoted and hypocritical morality; the fantastic by the huge Dog-Woman and her foundling son, Jordan. Besides, in both novels, the female body is metamorphosed to challenge the view of a ＂normal＂, acceptable femininity; what emerges is a monstrous and sublime body that collapses distinctions between gender boundaries. In Sexing the Cherry （1990）, Winterson created the grotesque, gigantic body of the Dog-Woman, a figure of Kristevan ＂abjection＂. In The Passion （1996）, she gave life to the hybrid body of Villanelle, an oxymoronic combination of the terrible beautiful. The conclusion of the paper argues that Winterson deploys the fantastic to deconstruct the gendered subject of the dominant signifying order and create a dislocated world outside commercial culture, where new voices can be heard, speaking for unheard, neglected groups, particularly women.展开更多
文摘Looking at the last decades of the 19th and 20th century from our vantage point encourages parallels to be drawn between the two periods： in fact, both are affected by a process of cultural fragmentation, social, and epistemological transformations and crises that permeate the whole civil society. In the specific field of English literature, the genre of the fantastic is undoubtedly a common presence. In Fantasy： The Literature of Subversion, Jackson （1981） noted the re-emergence of the fantastic as a transgressive force at moments of cultural stress and repression. Waugh （1995） held a similar view in The Harvest of the Sixties. At the end of the 20th century, in its postmodernist shape, fantastic literature becomes one of the favourite genres of a number of feminist writers, and among them, Jeanette Winterson transforms it into a truly transgressive genre. This paper examines Winterson＇s The Passion （1996） and Sexing the Cherry （1990） in the light of Jackson＇s theory of the fantastic, as a narrative that establishes an oppositional dialogic relationship with the ＂real＂, to interrogate it and collapse the traditional distinction between the normative and the ＂other＂. In The Passion, the real is signified by the dominant ideological discourse, exemplified by Napoleon; the fantastic by Villanelle＇s webbed feet and her ability to walk on water. In Sexing the Cherry, the real is represented by the Puritans with their bigoted and hypocritical morality; the fantastic by the huge Dog-Woman and her foundling son, Jordan. Besides, in both novels, the female body is metamorphosed to challenge the view of a ＂normal＂, acceptable femininity; what emerges is a monstrous and sublime body that collapses distinctions between gender boundaries. In Sexing the Cherry （1990）, Winterson created the grotesque, gigantic body of the Dog-Woman, a figure of Kristevan ＂abjection＂. In The Passion （1996）, she gave life to the hybrid body of Villanelle, an oxymoronic combination of the terrible beautiful. The conclusion of the paper argues that Winterson deploys the fantastic to deconstruct the gendered subject of the dominant signifying order and create a dislocated world outside commercial culture, where new voices can be heard, speaking for unheard, neglected groups, particularly women.
