Fictional Identities and Bodies in Jeanette Winterson's 'The Passion' and 'Written on the Body'

Abstract

My aim in this thesis would be to discover, how this complex fictional creation (and “re-creation”) of the identity and that of body is achieved by Winterson. In this respect, I am going to analyse these novels from a more universal point of view. – Though Winterson’s works are often interpreted from a lesbian point of view (as it can be known about her she is lesbian), I am not going to examine her works from this perspective. Nevertheless, though issues of lesbian literary critic will not be addressed, the criticism from the point of view of gender studies still cannot be avoided. Therefore, some aspects of gender identity will be investigated, as it makes up a relevant part of the identity of the individual. Still, the issue, how identity and body come about through fiction and stories, and what role language plays in this process, will be analysed in more general terms.