Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry

LynnDianne Beene (University of New Mexico)

Ed. by Cristina Sandru, The Literary Encyclopedia, Kerry Myler, Birmingham Newman University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1989

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Metafiction
Novel

Resources

Sexing the Cherry (1989) by Jeantte Winterson (bn. 1959) dances across boundaries of genre, place, and time to ponder themes including identity, discovery and renewal, love, the meaning of time, and the exclusion of the other. Set in mid-17^th century and mid-20^th century England, Sexing blends magic realism, postmodernism, historiography, fairy tales, and the discontinuity of time into a surreal, often darkly humorous novel.

Sexing opens in the years of the English Civil War (1642-1651), the Interregnum (1649-1660), the Great Plague (1665), and the Great Fire of London (1666) with the interpolated, nonlinear narratives of a spirited giantess, Dog-Woman, and her foundling son, Jordan. Their relationship, and the ways that Jordan experiences his actual and imaginary travels, characterize the novel’s major themes. Winterson's narrative lacks a definite beginning or ending but is cyclical, continuous, and...

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2539 words

Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "Sexing the Cherry". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2025 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9992, accessed 09 June 2026.]

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Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry

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