Looking at the last decades of the 19th and 20th century from our vantage point encourages parallels to be drawn between the two periods： in fact, both are affected by a process of cultural fragmentation, social, and...Looking at the last decades of the 19th and 20th century from our vantage point encourages parallels to be drawn between the two periods： in fact, both are affected by a process of cultural fragmentation, social, and epistemological transformations and crises that permeate the whole civil society. In the specific field of English literature, the genre of the fantastic is undoubtedly a common presence. In Fantasy： The Literature of Subversion, Jackson （1981） noted the re-emergence of the fantastic as a transgressive force at moments of cultural stress and repression. Waugh （1995） held a similar view in The Harvest of the Sixties. At the end of the 20th century, in its postmodernist shape, fantastic literature becomes one of the favourite genres of a number of feminist writers, and among them, Jeanette Winterson transforms it into a truly transgressive genre. This paper examines Winterson＇s The Passion （1996） and Sexing the Cherry （1990） in the light of Jackson＇s theory of the fantastic, as a narrative that establishes an oppositional dialogic relationship with the ＂real＂, to interrogate it and collapse the traditional distinction between the normative and the ＂other＂. In The Passion, the real is signified by the dominant ideological discourse, exemplified by Napoleon; the fantastic by Villanelle＇s webbed feet and her ability to walk on water. In Sexing the Cherry, the real is represented by the Puritans with their bigoted and hypocritical morality; the fantastic by the huge Dog-Woman and her foundling son, Jordan. Besides, in both novels, the female body is metamorphosed to challenge the view of a ＂normal＂, acceptable femininity; what emerges is a monstrous and sublime body that collapses distinctions between gender boundaries. In Sexing the Cherry （1990）, Winterson created the grotesque, gigantic body of the Dog-Woman, a figure of Kristevan ＂abjection＂. In The Passion （1996）, she gave life to the hybrid body of Villanelle, an oxymoronic combination of the terrible beautiful. The conclusion of the paper argues that Winterson deploys the fantastic to deconstruct the gendered subject of the dominant signifying order and create a dislocated world outside commercial culture, where new voices can be heard, speaking for unheard, neglected groups, particularly women.展开更多
This article focuses on Vernant＇s thesis, masterfully developed in Les origines de la pensde grecque （1962） and translated into English in 1982. Vernant explained that between the seventh- and the second-century BC...This article focuses on Vernant＇s thesis, masterfully developed in Les origines de la pensde grecque （1962） and translated into English in 1982. Vernant explained that between the seventh- and the second-century BCE, one can note crucial modifications of the traditional and religious atmosphere, in civilizations as distant as China, India, Persia, Palestine and Greece. These turning points brought Confucianism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Prophetism, and, in Greece, Search for Truth. For historians, who claim their expertise on the past, methodological issues are at stake in any inquiry about an ＂axial age＂ or an ＂axial breakthrough.＂ First, there is the epistemological question of historiography, a present narrative of the past that cannot, from a scientific point of view--that of the historians, erase varieties of past narratives （poetics, technical treatises, epigraphic decrees, vase paintings, etc.）. Then, there is the new understanding of the constant interaction of what we call the political sphere with what we call the religious sphere, insofar as the distinction between a strictly political sphere, separate from the religious sphere, is now fully challenged. Finally, the polis as we understand it nowadays includes women＇s acts, as feminist scholarship has demonstrated through the past 35 years. This new depiction makes the ＂citizens＂ different： They can no longer be thought of as all the same and interchangeable.展开更多
文摘Looking at the last decades of the 19th and 20th century from our vantage point encourages parallels to be drawn between the two periods： in fact, both are affected by a process of cultural fragmentation, social, and epistemological transformations and crises that permeate the whole civil society. In the specific field of English literature, the genre of the fantastic is undoubtedly a common presence. In Fantasy： The Literature of Subversion, Jackson （1981） noted the re-emergence of the fantastic as a transgressive force at moments of cultural stress and repression. Waugh （1995） held a similar view in The Harvest of the Sixties. At the end of the 20th century, in its postmodernist shape, fantastic literature becomes one of the favourite genres of a number of feminist writers, and among them, Jeanette Winterson transforms it into a truly transgressive genre. This paper examines Winterson＇s The Passion （1996） and Sexing the Cherry （1990） in the light of Jackson＇s theory of the fantastic, as a narrative that establishes an oppositional dialogic relationship with the ＂real＂, to interrogate it and collapse the traditional distinction between the normative and the ＂other＂. In The Passion, the real is signified by the dominant ideological discourse, exemplified by Napoleon; the fantastic by Villanelle＇s webbed feet and her ability to walk on water. In Sexing the Cherry, the real is represented by the Puritans with their bigoted and hypocritical morality; the fantastic by the huge Dog-Woman and her foundling son, Jordan. Besides, in both novels, the female body is metamorphosed to challenge the view of a ＂normal＂, acceptable femininity; what emerges is a monstrous and sublime body that collapses distinctions between gender boundaries. In Sexing the Cherry （1990）, Winterson created the grotesque, gigantic body of the Dog-Woman, a figure of Kristevan ＂abjection＂. In The Passion （1996）, she gave life to the hybrid body of Villanelle, an oxymoronic combination of the terrible beautiful. The conclusion of the paper argues that Winterson deploys the fantastic to deconstruct the gendered subject of the dominant signifying order and create a dislocated world outside commercial culture, where new voices can be heard, speaking for unheard, neglected groups, particularly women.
文摘This article focuses on Vernant＇s thesis, masterfully developed in Les origines de la pensde grecque （1962） and translated into English in 1982. Vernant explained that between the seventh- and the second-century BCE, one can note crucial modifications of the traditional and religious atmosphere, in civilizations as distant as China, India, Persia, Palestine and Greece. These turning points brought Confucianism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Prophetism, and, in Greece, Search for Truth. For historians, who claim their expertise on the past, methodological issues are at stake in any inquiry about an ＂axial age＂ or an ＂axial breakthrough.＂ First, there is the epistemological question of historiography, a present narrative of the past that cannot, from a scientific point of view--that of the historians, erase varieties of past narratives （poetics, technical treatises, epigraphic decrees, vase paintings, etc.）. Then, there is the new understanding of the constant interaction of what we call the political sphere with what we call the religious sphere, insofar as the distinction between a strictly political sphere, separate from the religious sphere, is now fully challenged. Finally, the polis as we understand it nowadays includes women＇s acts, as feminist scholarship has demonstrated through the past 35 years. This new depiction makes the ＂citizens＂ different： They can no longer be thought of as all the same and interchangeable.
