THE GALAXY WITHIN: SPACE, QUANTUM PHYSICS AND THE FANTASY OF BODILY UNITY IN JEANETTE WINTERSON’S GUT SYMMETRIES
THE GALAXY WITHIN: SPACE, QUANTUM PHYSICS AND THE FANTASY OF BODILY UNITY IN JEANETTE WINTERSON’S GUT SYMMETRIES

Summary/Abstract: Throughout this paper, I have directed my attention to Winterson’s “anxiety of limit”. One ofthe first aspects that the idea of border evokes is spatiality: countries, cities, houses are bounded systems,and the body can also be interpreted as a topos. In Gut Symmetries, Winterson draws parallels betweenthe human body and ultimately, the cosmos. I will argue that such correspondences allow Winterson tofashion a sense of unity and to transcend gender binarism, but also to question power relations throughthe discourse of Imperialism. Gut Symmetries moves spatial representation further, to an encompassingvision of the body: the references to quantum physics and superstring theory, blended with Tarot cardreadings and Kaballah pave the way for a vision of the ultimate border transgression: the hermaphrodite.

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