Multiple Discourses, Multiple Meanings: Jeanette Winterson's Language of Multiplicity and Variety

Jeanette Winterson is a contemporary British writer whose oeuvre is often defined as postmodern, although the writer herself often underlines her modernist roots. Her novels are inspired by the works of T.S.Eliot and Virginia Woolf. The following book is aimed at researching the poetic devices used by Winterson in her prose. Five novels were analysed: The Passion, Sexing the Cherry, Written on the Body, Gut Symmetries and The.Powerbook. Some of the most important aspects of the book are the intertextual references to other literary works, especially to the poetry and essays by T.S. Eliot who is the biggest inspiration in Winterson's works. The book is an attempt to define the Wintersonian style, and it presents a variety of methods used by Winterson to achieve the poetic quality in her prose. The research demonstrates both the prosaic and poetic elements of Winterson's works which illustrate the connection between transparency and opacity of language. What is interesting is the notion of the literal which may appear mundane and unpoetic. However, this analysis of Winterson's novels shows that the literal is an essential element of poetry.