Quali personagge. Invenzioni di genere

This essay analyzes the way in which traditional notions of sex, gender and sexuality are called into question in feminist bestsellers like "Rubyfruit Jungle" by Rita Mae Brown and Jeanette Winterson's "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit". These novels revolve around strong, independent female characters that offer new insights into what it means to be a woman. I argue that the fictional protagonist of "Rubyfruit Jungle", Molly Bolt, is both "a queer" (noun) and "queer" (adjective) as her subjectivity bridges two contradictory meanings associated with queer theory after 1990.