Subjectivity and Sexuality in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body Anonymous College

There are many critics, and criticism alike, about both Jeanette Winterson as a subject and her numerous art works in the world of literature as a post-modern writer. With an array of analysis from art critics come various views on Winterson’s choice of subject matter that may either support or reject how she chooses to express it. It is no different with her novel Written on the Body (2001), a novel in which Winterson employs a number of styles and techniques to show the narrator’s “expression” of his/her love and I have realized that it is never wise to solidify a complete and unravelled understanding of why Winterson uses the style and language she does to express the narrator’s thoughts because some critic’s views support each other while others contradict the rest. My particular focus will be on the use of inter-textual referencing, defiance of convention and the use of metaphors and poetic language used to ‘express’ the narrator’s love.
Winterson’s novel, Written on the Body, can be said to be famous, or even controversial for what some critics call an androgynous narrator or otherwise ungendered narrator. The curiosity of the narrator’s gender sometimes distracts the reader away from Winterson’s intention, whom in an...