Exploration of the Body Itself in Jeanette Winterson’s 'Written on the Body' Anonymous College

Jeanette Winterson uses fantastic and glorified imagery throughout her novel, Written on the Body, to discuss the human body. The images represented are mostly the bodies of women, in which she calls attention to the various elements of objectification and “the male gaze” to represent the body as other elements outside of itself, while also using anatomical terminology to show the literal representation of the body. The different lenses used to discuss the images cast a subversive representation of the narrator’s view on the human body.

The most highlighted and discussed image of the piece is the body of the character, Louise. She is first shown in a scene where the narrator describes, “your body bright beneath the clear green water, its shape fitting your shape, holding you, faithful to you. You turned on your back and your nipples grazed the surface of the river and the river decorated your hair with beads” (11). The reader is given the first impression that Louise is an object of desire for the narrator as the story reveals the admiration of her beautify through a fetishized observation. There are also many moments where the distinction between the body and its continued metaphor as text becomes skewed. The narrator often...