Image ID: A page of text is ripped and torn vertically into two columns with text obstructed along the vertical edges, corners, and down the middles of both sides. The full text of the original document follows:

This exercise will focus on Jeanette Winterson's book Written On The Body.  It was published in 1993, and is described as a 'work of fiction', perhaps the most accurate way of describing a work that tries to break away from the conventional novel form. It has no clearly defined plot, the chronological structure being presented through the narrator's mind, characters are introduced via reminiscence in their relation to the narrator.  The narrator "itself" is ungendered, not without sexual presence, but of a non-specified sex, and therefore sexuality; for the book details a love affair, and could be narrated by either a man or woman.  It is this issue of narration and gender, in relation to the contents of the book, and in relation to the author that is most interesting, both as an example of a post-modern text, but also in the context of feminist literary theories.
Although written in prose form, this extract from the central section of the book  given the separate heading 'The Skin', exemplifies the strongly poetic style of writing.  It is a particularly sensual passage, and alludes to the title of the book.  Hélène Cixous in her approach to the concept of écriture feminine believes there is a close connection between the female body and feminine writing.  After deconstructing phallogocentric binary oppositions she argues that 'there is no invention of any other I, no poetry, no fiction without a certain homosexuality...'  and 'femininity and bisexuality go together'.  This is not so far removed from Coleridge's consideration of the androgynous mind, or Woolf's assertion that 'it is fatal for anyone who writes to think of their sex...one must be woman-manly or man-womanly.'  Winterson has written a book that explores the female body, both in sickness and in health from the point of view of an un-named, gender-free narrator/lover.  It is interesting to consider whether knowledge of the author's sex and sexuality influence the way a reader might respond to the narrative voice and interpret the text.  Could this passage have only been written by a woman?  The poetic sensibility of the writing style and the loose structural form allow the text to be viewed in terms of écriture feminine,  in the same way that the end of Joyce's Ulysses has also been considered.  If male homosexual writers, like Jean Genet are regarded as eligible for feminine writing,  then surely lesbian authors should have a greater claim?  By choosing to write from an unspecified narrative position, Winterson may have lost the opportunity to develop what Bonnie Zimmerman considers to be a much needed 'unique lesbian feminist perspective'.  However, at the same time she has avoided marginalisation, and opened up the possibilities of author-narrator-text-reader relationships and interpretation.