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Between God And The Apple: Divinity, Violence And Desire In A.L. Kennedy's 'Original Bliss', Abigail Rine
Between God And The Apple: Divinity, Violence And Desire In A.L. Kennedy's 'Original Bliss', Abigail Rine
Faculty Publications - Department of English
This article investigates how female sexuality and desire can be refigured beyond dynamics of fear and subjugation. By offering a close reading of A.L. Kennedy’s novel Original bliss through the theories of He´le`ne Cixous and Luce Irigaray, this work highlights the relationship between violence and Western religious notions of divinity, sexuality and the female body. Kennedy’s novel portrays, in violent detail, that the way in which the religious dimension has been conceptualised and articulated enforces negative views of female sexuality and justifies violence against the body. Rather than merely confronting the religious denigration of feminine sexuality, however, Kennedy’s novel also …