(WO)MANSPEAK: GENDERED DISCOURSES IN JEANETTE WINTERSON’S SEXING THE CHERRY
(WO)MANSPEAK: GENDERED DISCOURSES IN JEANETTE WINTERSON’S SEXING THE CHERRY

Summary/Abstract: This paper tackles the construction of discursive gender identity in Winterson’s Sexing the Cherry, and explores the sophisticated interplay of masculine and feminine voices, which deconstruct binary assumptions of power vs. weakness, active vs. passive, centre vs. marginal. By altering the patriarchal structure of fairy-tales and by bringing forth the fantasy of the hermaphrodite, through the tales of Jordan and Dog-Woman, the traditional roles of femininity and masculinity are reversed, upended, and with them, the discursive elements of female and male writing change shape. Dog-Woman’s discourse makes use of historical details, and of the bawdy Medieval comic register, while Jordan’s tale has a poetic quality, it dwells on the uncertainty of reality and truth, authenticity, identity, chronology, history and clear-cut gender, being infused with a postmodern “distrust of metanarratives.” It is in fact Jordan that “speaks (as) woman”, while Dog-Woman “laughs” like a Medusa, counteracting patriarchy through her masculine discourse.

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