Abstract
The aim of the paper is to analyse the dystopian apocalyptic vision of both the Western and Eastern civilization in the novel The Stone Gods by contemporary British writer Jeanette Winterson. This postmodern narrative is blending the world’s colonial past with its potentially colonial future, as the mankind is attempting at colonizing a new planet. Unfortunately, by making the planet more modern and habitable, the scientists cause an interplanetary cataclysm. The narrative then moves to the times of Captain Cook and soon turns to near-future London. The novel thus creates a sense of fluid and omnipresent history that is constantly blended into the present. The life both on Earth and in the universe undergoes cyclical destruction. Even though the time and space constantly shift, the individual stories are interconnected not only by the common theme of human greed and irresponsible economic and anti-ecological behaviour, but also by the central character Billie/Billy Crusoe. Following the main gender-bending motif of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Billie is falling in love with personality, not gender. In the brave new perverted world of human genetic modifications, homosexuality is seen as natural and legitimate. Yet, Winterson goes even further, creating a romance between Billie and a robo sapiens Spike, posing a question about the nature of both humanity and femininity, and at the same time examines a possibility of love between human and an evolving robot.<
Author Information
Michaela Weiss, Silesian University, Czech Republic
Paper Information
Conference: ACCS2013
Stream: Cultural Studies
This paper is part of the ACCS2013 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Weiss M. (2013) Jeanette Winterson’s Trans-world and Trans-gender Dystopia ISSN: 2187-4751 – The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2013 – Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/2187-4751.20130181
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/2187-4751.20130181
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