Gender-Bending Fantasies in Women's Writing

What is the function of a fantastic image in a
novel? Why do writers switch into the fantastic
mode? Does a webbed feet heroine imply subversion?
Can a winged woman be a certain signifier? This book
sets out from the premise that the literary
fantastic in women's writing can be a gender-bending
tool and subvert patriarchal gender roles. Thus, it
investigates the function of the fantastic elements
in the novels of Angela Carter and Jeanette
Winterson. The book shows that through an
efficient use of the fantastic mode, both Carter and
Winterson successfully negate culturally dominant
notions of reality in their novels, whereby they
resist the cultural constructions of gender. The
close analysis of the four novels presented in
separate chapters identifies each fantastic image
with its possible cultural and political
implications so that the un-seen of the culture
can be seen clearly. Focusing on the subversive
nature of the fantastic images in Carter's and
Winterson's novels, this book shows how women
writers can transcend traditional gender boundaries.