Assemblage Theory, Gender, and Ethics in Jeanette Winterson's Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019).

Abstract

This paper explores the complex ways in which time, gender, and ethics can be addressed through the critical lenses of assemblage theory in Jeanette Winterson’s novel Frankinssstein: A Love Story (2019). We address Winterson’s novel from a multidimensional critical perspective. We first focus on the temporal structure of the novel, where the narrative time becomes “a multiplicity of flows” (DeLanda 2016, 14) that connects past and present in a non-linear way in constant conversation. We argue that it is through this interplay of past and present that Winterson’s novel manages to successfully depict many of the ontological difficulties that surround the constructed nature of gender (difficulties that are often related to binaries and essentialism).