The crucial element of repetition in Winterson’s works is her preoccupation with clichés in romantic language. In her article “Reinventing the Romance”, Andermahr defines Winterson’s oeuvre as
the creation of a new language for the expression of sexual love, drawing on, as Borch shows, the long tradition of Western quest romances and more recently and humbly the specific genre of lesbian romance. (97)
The critic summarizes Winterson’s use of language as “defamilarizing” (94) which is a mixture of the poetic and the vernacular (94). The use of the vernacular in poetic language has also been highlighted during discussions of elements of defamiliarization.
The notion of defamiliarization in poetry predates the Russian formalists. E.g., in De vulgari eloquentia (On Vernacular Eloquence, 1304), Dante sets out to prove that there is an “illustrious vernacular,” which should be venerated as a language suitable for poetry the same as the “sacred, solemn and eternal Latin language.” He seeks to prove that the vernacular can be poetic, that the poetic exists in the mundane. (The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics 343)
In her discussion of Winterson’s defamiliarization, Andermahr uses the refrain of Written on the Body: “It’s the clichés that cause the trouble” (Winterson WB: 10, 21, 26, 71, 155, 180). She also refers to Borch who argues that Winterson questions “romance’s characteristic idiom” (94) and portrays “how the clichés destroy the love they are often invoked to express” (94). What is mentioned at that point is also the notion of the iterability of the cliché associated with the common, contrary to love that is linked with the unique.
As regards storytelling, it must be highlighted that the Bible plays a vital role in Winterson’s works. It can also be argued that this aspect of her works reflects the general tension between storytelling and poetry. In her essay titled “Religion and ←33 | 34→Spirituality”, Michelle Denby discusses the significance of religion and spirituality in Winterson’s oeuvre. When elaborating on Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit she states, “The novel parodically rewrites biblical themes, events and styles in ways that highlight evangelicalism’s production of universalizing, dogmatic stories” (Andermahr 101). The critic observes that the novel simultaneously undermines and glorifies the authority of scripture, insofar that Winterson parodies biblical themes but draws her inspiration from biblical styles, since it presents the “Poetic Genius” which connects myth, poetry and history. Thus, Oranges portrays “contemporary narrative and poetical theology’s reevaluation of the Bible as both ‘epic narrative’ and ‘sacred poetry’ ” (Cupitt qtd. in Andermahr 101). In this case, the Bible is ideologically undermined, but stylistically appreciated. The chapter of Oranges titled “Genesis” includes the parody of biblical Genesis by rewriting it into Jeanette’s adoption story. Denby argues, “Its literary style recalls the biblical book of Genesis, which draws its effect from the “polarity between prose and poetry … the prose function[ing] as a setting in which, repeatedly, the gem of a poem sparkles” (Fokkelman qtd. in Denby, Andermahr 102). Throughout the book, Winterson uses “spiritual symbolism” (Andermahr 103) and allegories as stylistic devices. As in the aforementioned novel, The Passion also questions the Bible ideologically, but not literally employing a poetic “villanelle structure” (Denby qtd. in Andermahr 105).
Winterson herself refers to the citationality of her works, “I’m telling you stories. Trust me. But I have said these things in The Passion” (qtd. in Andermahr 58). As Gustar concludes, “her new language remains citational” (59). The critic juxtaposes the iterability of Winterson’s language with the notion of storytelling and identity. Narrative identities constitute a by-product of language and desire (59). Written on the Body is a novel which stems from the desire to deal with loss through language. Winterson’s works in general can be defined as dealing with loss. As she writes in Weight, “I want to tell the story again. That’s why I write fiction – so that I can keep telling the story. I return to problems I can’t solve, not because I’m an idiot, but because the real problems can’t be solved” (137). Thus, dealing with loss in Winterson’s case seems art for art’s sake, language for language’s sake, the story for the story’s sake.
Reynolds and Noakes also suggest concentrating on repetitions in the text and consider them as vital, asking the question, “What does this poetic network of images suggest about the nature of the narrative method?” (145). Especially chapters 23 and 24 of The PowerBook explore the idea of repetition since they begin with the same sentence: “The Map. The Treasure” (Winterson PB, 221, 227). Apparently, this section includes numerous words and ideas which have already appeared in the novel, such as ‘Wilderness’ (145). The critics suggest a ←34 | 35→relationship between repeated words and invite the reader to be imaginative in trying to decipher the meanings hidden behind these connections (145). Links are also made between Winterson’s novels as regards the image of the maze in The Passion and the literary maze in The PowerBook (149) although these mazes are of a completely different nature.
In the analysis of The PowerBook, the critics suggest focusing on certain images which reappear in the novel, for example, “treasure, the journey, the idea of disguise, water” (Reynold and Noakes 132). Winterson’s vivid narrative is defined as “metaphoric narrative structuring” (132). The critics ask: “What technical means, to do with metaphors and imagery, make this text distinctively ‘Wintersonian’?” (133). Therefore, it is suggested that Winterson creates a unique voice which is manifested not only in the plot of the novel but also in her linguistic strategies.
Winterson realizes that her stories are repetitive in the realm of content but the form is always different from the previous one. Thus, by her focusing on form rather than content, Winterson seems to be successful in achieving defamiliarization. The repetition is in fact recreation: in this case, of well-known stories and her familiar problems. She also emphasizes that she does not seek resolution for her problems, which may also signify her non-utilitarian and non-didactic approach to storytelling and language, and that transformation and progress in understanding her own self can be fulfilled through repetition and even regression, returning to the point of departure.
2.3 Winterson and Language (of Poetry)
Writing about the connection between language and body in Winterson’s texts, Sonia Front quotes Brush’s “Metaphors of Inscription”, which highlights parallels between sexuality and textuality, saying that they “coagulate corporeal signifiers into signs, producing all effects of meaning, representation, depth” (75). Front also contemplates the etymology of the word “text” which originates from the Latin word textum (“web”). Thus, it can be concluded that “[t];ext means tissue” (ibid.) and it constitutes “a galaxy of signifiers”.
In her chapter, “ ‘It’s the clichés that cause the trouble’ – Looking for the Language of Rapture”, Front discusses Art & Lies and states that “[t];he symbolic poses the locale of ‘dead words’ which have been ‘tortured and killed’ to trap their meaning, to pinpoint objects and feelings” (Front 76). Sappho is opposed to the “phallic language” (77) and can see it in a new way. Front proposes that “[t]o rediscover the potential of language is to make the words palpable through lyricism, metaphor, alliteration, refrains and word play” (77) and refers ←35 | 36→to linguistic signification in which “articulation of meaning in speech constitutes the translation of bodily modes of signification, as well as emotions into words”. These arguments can be linked to the prose poem as a genre. Jonathan Monroe argues that the prose poem “aspires to be poetic/literary language’s own coming to self-consciousness, the place where poet and reader alike become critically aware of the writer’s language” (qtd. in Delville 11).
When discussing Written on the Body, Gustar points out,
The text does not simply repeat the romance narrative, but makes the citational legacy of the romance narrative its particular focus by reiterating the conventions of romance in its multiple love plots,