{"id":2651,"date":"2025-02-10T19:15:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T00:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=2651"},"modified":"2025-02-10T19:15:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T00:15:05","slug":"map-of-belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2025\/02\/10\/map-of-belonging\/","title":{"rendered":"Map of Belonging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeanette Winterson\u2019s <\/span>Written on the Body<\/span><\/i> is saturated with longing. On page 135, the narrator calculates how long it would take the sound waves of their screams to reach Louise; of course, it would be futile. They simply cannot scream loud enough, it is impossible. This metaphor is so human\u2013 that urge to scream out in times of great loss, even if you will not be heard. The rest of page 135 speaks to the novel\u2019s broader contemplation of belonging and estrangement. The following paragraph describes the zoo at night\u2014animals crying out, \u201cspecies separated from one another, knowing instinctively the map of belonging.\u201d This ties into the novel\u2019s queerness, where the narrator\u2019s love for Louise defies rigid categorization. The \u201cmap of belonging\u201d is dictated not by conventional social norms, but by love, or at least connection. Just as the animals in the zoo are unable to access their natural habitat, the narrator finds themselves cut off from the one place they belong: with Louise. \u201cI keen in the fields to the moon. Animals will call back,\u201d demonstrates the narrator\u2019s desperation, their attempts to reach out even when no response will come. This passage builds on earlier moments in the novel where the narrator struggles with love as something ineffable. The passage\u2019s closing image\u2014the animals, ears pricked, listening for \u201cthe noises of kill\u201d but only hearing human sounds\u2014further deepens the novel\u2019s sense of displacement. If Louise is the animal, she is one separated from her natural environment, removed from the one she loves (at least from the narrators POV). If the narrator is the animal, then they are imprisoned by their own yearning. In this way, this passage encapsulates the novel\u2019s central paradox: love is both the most natural and the most unnatural thing, something instinctive yet impossible to hold onto. The page ends with, \u201cI wish I could hear your voice again.\u201d So gut-wrenching.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeanette Winterson\u2019s Written on the Body is saturated with longing. On page 135, the narrator calculates how long it would take the sound waves of their screams to reach Louise; of course, it would be futile. They simply cannot scream loud enough, it is impossible. This metaphor is so human\u2013 that urge to scream out … Continue reading Map of Belonging<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[346812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-class-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}