This essay is a reading of Jeanette Winterson’s novel Written on the Body. There are three major areas regarding to which the text is analysed: the textual ambiguity of the rhetorical voice, the linguistic characteristics of the work and the reliability of its narrator. The first chapter discusses the theoretical framework used in reference to the novel. The main theory applied into the subject of sexual ambiguity is Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. Since the novel deals with a narrator of unspecified gender, the second chapter examines the ambiguous gendered identity of the narrative persona. The third chapter discusses the extraordinary linguistic characteristics of the novel and analyses how the narrator in the novel can remain of sexually unidentifiable nature. As there is a great deal of ambiguity, which makes the reader question the credibility of the narrative voice, the issue of reliability is discussed in the fourth chapter of the essay.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hh-17643 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Arman, Judy |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för humaniora (HUM) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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