Personages’ gender identity in the postmodern British literary discourse (based on the novel “Passion” by J. Winterson)

Abstract

The article focuses on the textual realization of the characters’ gender identity in the postmodern novel “Passion” by J. Winterson. In the study offered gender is regarded not as a binary category in its traditional sense, represented by femininity and masculinity as types of one’s gender identity but as a non-binary phenomenon, which includes androgyny and other varieties of gender. Therefore, gender identity is defined as a set of one’s ideas, behavioral patterns, values that determine one’s awareness as a representative of a certain gender. Characters’ gender identity may not necessarily be related to a binary model of gender or gender stereotypes but is predetermined by their personal or individual characteristics which attain linguistic or textual realization. The novel “Passion” by J. Winterson is an illuminating example of postmodern British literature which brings into special focus textual representation of gender identity of two main character-androgynes Villanelle and Henry. In the story under the analysis the notion “androgynous” turns to be interpreted in both physiological or anatomical and psycho-social aspects. Being a part of the modern trend of magic realism with its innate mythological motives, the novel incorporates the ideas which transform the archetypical images of a female gender identity to the utmost. The setting and the very background of the novel provide felicity conditions for revealing of a picarescular type of an androgynous woman-rebellion that is endowed with monstrous, zoomorphic features. Her gender dualism, which underlies androgyny, expands this character’s potential for self -realization to the maximum. What makes the novel under the analyses really unique is that the dual nature of androgynity as a phenomenon is represented. By depicting Villanelle as the image of a woman with mainly masculine characteristics, J. Winterson also creates a mirror opposite image of a man with mainly feminine features. If the female androgynous character Villanelle acquires masculine characteristics, realized through the features of zoomorphism and monstrosity as well as travesty inherent in the image of a bisexual being, the male androgynous personage Henry is represented as the ordinary soldier of the Napoleonic army, who is characterized by femininity, manifested in his appearance and psycho-emotional features.