Jeanette Winterson’s Narratives of Desire: Rethinking Fetishism (New Horizons in Contemporary Writing) - Softcover

Hamzah-Osbourne, Shareena Z.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1350229008 ISBN 13: 9781350229006

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023

Synopsis

Putting forward a new theory of fetishism - alternative fetishism - this book provides an up-to-date examination of the work of Jeanette Winterson, offering fresh perspectives and new insights on the topics of gender, sexuality, and identity in her writing. Combining contemporary theories in psychoanalytical and cultural studies, it proposes that a rethinking of fetishism allows Winterson’s works to be brought into sharper critical focus by repositioning fetishism as a daily practice in society. In so doing, it argues that Winterson's work challenges orthodox, normative, and contemporary views of fetishism to reveal her own alternative version. Containing the transcript of an email Q&A with Winterson herself and covering the majority of Winterson’s oeuvre, from her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985), up to the most recent, Frankissstein (2019), the book is divided into three main chapters that each discuss a particular theme in Winterson’s fiction: bodily fetishism, food fetishism, and sexual fetishism. While the book's focus is on Winterson, the theoretical framework it proposes can be applied to other authors and disciplines in the Arts and Humanities, such as theatre and film, offering new ways of thinking about topics such as fetishism, feminism, psychoanalytical theory, postmodernism, gender, and sexuality.

About this title

About the Author

Shareena Z. Hamzah-Osbourne is an Honorary Research Associate in the College of Arts & Humanities at Swansea University, UK, and has been a Research Fellow in the Florence Mockeridge Fellowship group. Prior to her academic career, she worked in media and advertising in Malaysia, and she has since taught at universities in Malaysia, Iran, and the UK.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350229008
• ISBN 13: 9781350229006
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224