Abstract:

Sigmund Freud’s notion of the “phallic mother” is a significant concept to examine gender, sexuality and power relations not only in social life but also in a literary work. Although phallic mother/woman concept is mostly used to describe omnipotent women in many texts, mostly based on its psychoanalytic origin, this study argues that it is an inadequate portrayal to describe feminine potential and power. In this respect, this study aims to propose another concept that should be used to describe powerful, feminine, securing, un-authoritatively maternal, and freeing mother/woman as “vulvic mother/woman” instead of “phallic”. To examine the differences between phallic woman and vulvic woman, the study analyzes two woman/mother characters from Jeanette Winterson’s two novels –Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Sexing the Cherry. Based on the theories from psychoanalysis and a survey on mythology, this study tries to take attention to feminine conceptualizations in relation to the analyzed novels.

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