A Lesbian Eroticism of Style in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body, Emma Donoghue’s Hood, and Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet

Abstract

As influential canonical postmodern erotic lesbian novels, Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body, Emma Donoghue’s Hood, and Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet are mostly analysed for lesbian eroticism via devices of anti-binarism and structure, but not aspects of style. This thesis begins with a literature review and literary history which introduces the issue of the relationship between lesbian eroticism and literary style in lesbian literary criticism. The three subsequent textual analysis chapters form case studies arguing that the criticism of these novels has overlooked the aesthetic significance of a lesbian eroticism of style.