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The second part, “Desire,” assesses that which “eludes final definition” (Belsey, Desire 3), but the presence of which can be universally felt, for instance through the mechanism of seduction. Although seduction may take many forms, the initial seduction is that of the Other which, in turn, mimics an earlier seduction by the Lacanian Gestalt, the image of the subject as reflected in the mirror (Lacan, Four 3). The mirror is, in turn, theorised as a space where the subject is offered versions of itself, “becoming something or someone else” (Jackson 88); in other words, a place where the subject metamorphoses and mutates in its constant dynamics to occupy new subject positions.
The third part, “Ambiguous Metamorphoses and Leaking Identities,” traces the issue of transformation as a key element against “notions of unique, individual identity,” as articulated by Marina Warner (2). Extensively used as a metaphor by Dante and Ovid, among others, metamorphosis becomes a key fictional tool to explore concepts of the self in relation to its presumed stability, thus anticipating the theorisation of the poststructuralist subject in process.
The last section in Preliminaries, “Seductions in Narrative,” starts from an understanding of literature as a mirror. Narrative fiction is thus presented as a space where readers are allowed to catch fleeting glimpses of their multiplicity and endless (per)versions. As such, narrative becomes a specular, transitional locus where desire can be temporarily articulated, for “stories are about desire” (Belsey, Desire 208), hence their seductiveness.
The second block, “Literary Reflections,” is divided into two, and it contains readings of Angela Carter’s Heroes and Villains and Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. The first part, “Literary Reflections I,” discusses the production of Angela Carter, tracing in detail the post-nuclear con-text proposed by the novel. It also analyses the figure of the exotic Other as a projection of the subject’s desire, and the construction of the subject in process, whilst referring to issues of dissolution of identity.
The second part, “Literary Reflections II,” is devoted to assessing Jeanette Winterson’s novel through references to the production of the author, insights into the novel’s presumed (auto)biographical implications, and its jeopardy of the distinction fact/fiction.