Desire and Identity: an Analysis of Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body as a Work of Erotic Literature

Among the most blatant paradoxes – and fascinating traits – of Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body erotic tale is that one of the two protagonists of the turbulent relationship is the narrator whose gender remains unrevealed, eliciting its distinctive ambivalence. So far, the novel has been widely discussed under the lens of textuality, narratology, Women, Lesbian and Queer Studies, but never from the perspective of Erotic Literature. My interpretation of the story is that the narrating voice finds her/himself at pains with the definition of her/his identity, and the passionate affair with the Australian Louise helps her/him to disentangle the mystery. Blackmailed by Louise’s husband, however, she/he is forced to renounce her/his lover but, apart from the sentimental loss, she/he is also deprived of her/his sense of identity. Despite using a language that remains mostly oblique about amorous exchanges, Winterson’s Written on the Body can indeed be read as an erotic story, because the body gains central importance in the story-telling, because the metaphors used to describe it largely call into question the kingdom of the senses and because – similarly to what happens in erotic literature – part of the story is not realistic, but makes extensive use of erotic fantasy. I also intend to use the lens of Queer Studies – and most prominently Judith Butler’s theory – when referring to how lesbian stories can be narrativized by privileging the thread of loss and absence.