Mihaela Cristina Lazar

Dimensions of Monstrosity in Self's and Winterson's Novels Mihaela Cristina Lazar

The aim of this book is to delve into dimensions of monstrosity, in terms of bodily, sexual, and narrative monstrosity, so as to underline the inherent ambiguities populating the biological category of sex and the cultural category of gender, as well as the different forms of sexual manifestation and the sexually charged text, aspects that are all called into question in Will Self?s "Cock and Bull" and Jeanette Winterson?s "Sexing the Cherry". The idea of a monstrous feminine populates the fictional worlds of Self and Winterson, but it is tackled differently by the two authors, from stereotyping the female body to hailing the empowered woman.