Subverting gender and sexuality ; Lesbianism and body politics in jeanette winterson's oranges are not the only fruit

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, a literary text by Margaret Atwood, dedivinizes the traditional grand narrative of gender and sexuality via the subversive dynamics of lesbianism and body politics. Depicting a lesbian protagonist Jeanette as a mnemonic device, the text encompasses the cognitive thirst of queer politics, performativity, transpolitics, and drag culture. It also dramatizes the female body as the point of resistance rather than the site patriarchal exploitation. Jeanette’s lesbianism celebrates her own body, an essential premise of gender construction in patriarchal ideology, in full-fledged form. Hence, the text is the critique of gender and sexuality that is deeply rooted in western metaphysics.