Sexing the Cherry- postmodernism within

        Sexing the Cherry was written in 1989 and exhibits themes of post modernism,

feminism, fairytale and arguably gothic themes .Throughout the novel there are two main

narrators, which are Dog woman and Jordan. The novel also exhibits themes of time, space,

exploration, identity, sexual ambiguity, myth, magic, realism and of course gender.

Throughout this assignment the theme of postmodernism and how Winterson has portrayed

this throughout the novel through the use of characterization will be discussed.

 

       Firstly Patricia Waugh speculates that, ‘postmodernism can be seen as the latest version

of a long standing attempt to address social and political issues through an aestheticised

understanding of the world.’ (Waugh: 1992:7) It could also be said that postmodern literature

 uses old narratives and puts them into contemporary contexts  and plays with language and

conventions of fantasy. It  also breaks down the barriers of the traditional classic novel. In a

sense that the reader is no longer passive (non linear narrative) and is forced to engage in the

text more than ever. The structure of the novel is fragmented making the reader work very

hard, which can be seen as a post modern convention.

      

       Dog woman could be seen to represent the postmodern approach Winterson had took

when writing this novel. Winterson challenges the idea of gender expectations and challenges

conventional thinking . Old social factors have been broken down and re written through the

character of Dog woman. Dog woman is portrayed as different to other women, she is large

and has no care for her appearance. For example, ‘How hideous am I? My nose is flat my

 eyebrows are heavy. I have only a few teeth, and those are poor

show.’(Winterson:1989:24)Jordan also states that ‘she is silent the way men are suppose to

be.’  This woman challenges the idea of womanhood. Einstein states that, ‘the behaviour that

was thought to be appropriate for the stereo typical woman was passive or weak non

aggressive and dependant and thus resulted as her being understood as incapable of strong

independence existence.’ (Eisenstein: 1984:59)

      Dog woman completely inverts the expected gender traits of woman hood, through her

appearance and behaviour. She uses violence to solve problems; she is monstrous looking

rather than petite and pretty. She also does not give birth to her son like a ‘normal ‘woman

would. Thus Winterson has given the reader a new way of looking and gender traits and

broken the old truths. This can be seen as a postmodernist approach to the gender traits

 debate.

      Jordan also contributes to the new woman gender traits. The fact that Dog woman finds

Jordan on a river bank indicates the challenge of the female in the novel, instead of giving

birth to a child Dog woman finds her child on the river bank , thus Winterson is inventing

the other woman and challenging a readers expectation of the passive, vulnerable inferior

female.

 

   Linda Hutcheon asserts that, ‘postmodern thought has challenged our liberal humanist

notions of man – that essentialized , idealized eternal creature by forcing us to think about

gender of so called ‘universal’ humanity.’ (Hutcheon: 1993:27) This could be reflected in

Sexing the cherry again through Dog woman, even her name could reflect

the postmodern feminist approach. Dog woman is a non feminine name, she is not

referred to as Miss/Mrs Dog woman stating that she is not married. Thus suggesting that she

does not need a man to exist and survive, she is a woman but she is not strikingly feminine

and this can be recognised through her name. She is fully comfortable with herself and does

not need a name to define this. The significance of names throughout the novel could fit in to

a gothic genre as in Rebecca (1938)  by Daphne Du Maurier, the protagnist’s name is never

 mentioned or made refrence to. This is , maybe because of the notions of the otherness and

the unknown woman which makes a text gothic. In Winterson’s novel Dog woman is

presented as the other woman, the unknown woman and therefore her name has no

significance to her. ‘I have a name but i have forgotton it, they call me Dog woman and it

will do.’ ( Winterson:1989:11)Arguably that her name does not define who she is and

therefore she does not need  a name to represent this.

      Another interesting point is, in Winterson’s novel is the use of the princesses and how she

has made a magnificent play on identity and gender through this , which can be seen as

extremely postmodern. Winterson has redeveloped the typical princess’s endings, by

empowering these women to make their own decisions , for example: ‘She had not minded

her husband much more than any wife does, until he had tried to stop her hobby.’

 (Winterson: 1990:49)The first princess killed her husband as he had tried to stop her from

 pursuing her hobby.

       One of the princesses was also a lesbian which can be seen as very postmodern as these

alternate endings to the princess’s plays on the notions of fairytale and fantasy by shattering

the normal expectations of women in fairytales. Winterson has shown this through the

princesses in the sense that, they are able to make their own choices, and no longer feel the

need to be the the trophy wife and sacrifice their goals to be the perfect wife/woman.

     The feminist perspective is even reflected through Jordan within the novel, he is

portrayed as a romantic, sensitive and extremely gentle male like most would expect a

woman to act . For example he takes Dog woman to watch the sun set, which could be a

suggestion that Jordan has become feminised, as men are not thought to be as romantic,

sensitive and gentle like Jordan is portrayed. An ironic play on names and places could also

be seen here. Jordan was found by a river and possibly named after river Jordan, a river

pursues  a journey like Jordan and Dog woman  do. Identity is fluid like water, which could

 represent this in a metaphorical way.

    

    The fact that Dog woman is self aware indicates, the way in which Winterson constructs

the characters within the novel. For example, ‘how hideous am i?’ (Winteron:1989:24) This

potrays a woman who accepts herself for who she is and has no problem in doing so. The

notions of sight is made reference to throughout this novel. The reader is pointed at Dog

womans apperance and how she percieves herself, and as a visual aid she also compares

herself to monsters. It could be said that sympathy can be felt for Dog woman as she is

an ugly oversized woman, however it is intresting that when Dog woman is not speaking in

first person narrative she can be potrayed as a intellectual, bright, strong woman. This

postmodern twist is  very complicated but yet rather easy to understand. As the narrative

in this novel may not play a crucial role into the readers intepretation of Dog woman and her

identity.

As barthes states,

  

       ‘ As soon as a fact is narrated no longer with a view to acting directly on reality

         but intransitively, that is to say, finally outside of any function other than that

         of the very practice of the symbol, itself , the disconnection occurs, the voice

         loses its origin, the author enters into his own death, writing begins.’

        (Barthes:1967:25)

        

Thus suggesting that when the author no longor narrates through the character the

interpretation from the reader can start to un ravel. In wintersons novel this can be  seen

through the readers perception of Dogwoman and her own self awarness. We do not have to

agree with Dogwoman and have room for opinions on this subject, which can be seen as

a very artistic postmodern act, as we can read a text and be included within the text by

coming to our own ideas, thoughts perceptions and conclusions. Whereas in a classic novel

we are very much given a passive role in the writing and no room for our own perception of

characters are left for the reader.

         The fact that Dog woman uses violence to solve conflict shatters gender expectations

as the expected female would ususally solve any conflict with talking about it. For example

Dog woman says, ‘this was my first murder’ (Winterson:1989:107) However the narration

 could play a crucial part here as, the reader is given insight to her motives for everything

 violentthat she carries out. This again plays on reader perception and can be seen as a

postmodernist act.

     Another group of characters that the reader encounters is the indian hopi tribe,which

carries deeper meanning. The language used by the hopi tribe is somewhat confusing as

it is rich but yet there is no past tense ,presnet or future,which could be a suggestion that

time is merely a social construction and that there is no divisions between them ,us , this

world and their world. Mchale states that, ‘postmodernism describes ‘some’ universe, and

not necessarily the universe, or a plurality of universes.’ (Mchale:1987:27) He also states

that, ‘postmodernism proposes the question of which world is this?’( Mchale:1987:10)

This is exactly what Winterson could have been doing when experimenting with the elements

of language and time especially through the hopi tribe,which again can be seen as extremely

postmodern.

     Winterson has clearly presented the reader with new ideas and approaches to reading a

story. The concept of a non linear narrative has clearly been addressed by exploring

narrational and non rationalized consciousness especially through the hopi tribe.Wintersons

approach to deconstruction of linguistics has made postmodern discourse  independannt of

historical conventions. Dog woman is also presented as a strong independant woman fighting

gender expectations in a limited society,which again can be seen as a postmodernist approach

to writing. Winterson is a fantastic pioneer of  postmodernist fiction and has clearly presented

a work of art, riddled in postmodernist ideas.The freedom the text offers readers is also an

excellent use of postmodernism. Each character in this novel represents the shattering of

old conventions and rules,which seems a truely artistic act to achieve.