Foreign Bodies: The Grotesque Body in the Fiction of Jeanette Winterson

Referring tο the ideas of Mary Russo, Julio Kristeva and other postmodern critics and theorists, my essay discusses the representation of the grotesque body and its significance in terms of gender and sexual orientation in Jeanette Winterson's The Passion, Sexing the Cherry and Written on the Body. Winterson, as Ι illustrate, utilises the motif of the grotesque body subversively, employing it to celebrate the material dimension of existence, to interrogate and critique the mysogynistic image of the monstrous feminine and to resignify the boundaries of the object. The motif is relevant not only to her portrayal of character but also to her treatment of narrative and imagery. It finds expression in her use of imagery and narrative, as well as informing the intertextual aspect of her writing