Fiction and Truth in Jeanette Winterson’s Novels
| Thesis title in Czech: | Fikce a pravda v románech Jeanette Wintersonové |
|---|---|
| Thesis title in English: | Fiction and Truth in Jeanette Winterson’s Novels |
| Key words: | Jeanette Wintersonová|fikce|pravda|realita|vyprávění|narativ|víra|historie |
| English key words: | Jeanette Winterson|fiction|truth|reality|storytelling|narrative|belief|history |
| Academic year of topic announcement: | 2021/2022 |
| Thesis type: | Bachelor's thesis |
| Thesis language: | angličtina |
| Department: | Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK) |
| Supervisor: | Mgr. Daniela Theinová, Ph.D. |
| Author: | hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept. |
| Date of registration: | 11.04.2022 |
| Date of assignment: | 11.04.2022 |
| Administrator's approval: | not processed yet |
| Confirmed by Study dept. on: | 22.04.2022 |
| Date and time of defence: | 05.09.2022 00:00 |
| Date of electronic submission: | 04.08.2022 |
| Date of proceeded defence: | 05.09.2022 |
| Submitted/finalized: | committed by student and finalized |
| Opponents: | Mgr. Petra Johana Poncarová, Ph.D. |
| Guidelines |
| Since I first read Jeanette Winterson’s work, I have been fascinated by the way the author works with stories and foregrounds acts of storytelling, not only as a creative take on reality, but to comment on the relationship between what is invented and what is true. In her narratives, which invariably feature a multiplicity of stories being told, she offers diverse speculative approaches to reality and identity, thus foregrounding the role of belief and subjectivity in experience. In my thesis, I will examine Winterson’s use of stories and storytelling both as a topic and an approach to life and reality transcending the boundaries of the novels. My main focus will be on how the two key concepts of “fiction” and “truth” influence each other in Jeanette Winterson’s writings. I argue that these two categories continuously overlap, until the boundaries between what is made up and what is actual become blurred. This allows Winterson to simultaneously question and assert the value of both categories. In her work, stories have a dual function: on one hand, they provide solace and comfort; they serve as a coping mechanism that helps the author and her characters make sense of their realities. On the other hand, they offer critique: by juxtaposing traditional and well-established narratives with her own, fantastical ones, Winterson foregrounds the stale norms and biases ingrained in the canonical stories and, by extension, in the society and ourselves. These main concepts will be introduced using the example of Winterson’s first and most famous novel, Oranges Are not the Only Fruit. Subsequently, the thesis will be divided into three main chapters, each of which will focus on a novel from a different part of the author’s career; I intend to work above all with Sexing the Cherry, The Stone Gods, and Frankissstein, with references to Winterson’s other works wherever relevant. There is an abundance of secondary literature analysing Jeanette Winterson’s writing which I can draw from; some of the relevant sources are included in the tentative bibliography below. For a theoretical background to the topic of “fictionality” and “truth,” I will consult, among others, Truth, Fiction, and Literature by Peter Lamarque and Stein H. Olsen. |
| References |
| French, Jana L. “‘I’m telling you stories.... Trust me’: Gender, Desire, and Identity in Jeanette Winterson’s Historical Fantasies.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, 10.3, 1999: 231–52. JSTOR, Harries, Elizabeth Wanning. “The Mirror Broken: Women’s Autobiography and Fairy Tales.” Marvels & Tales, 14.1, Wayne State University Press, 2000: 122–35, Lamarque, Peter, and Stein H. Olsen. Truth, Fiction, and Literature: A Philosophical Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. Onega, Susana. Jeanette Winterson. Manchester University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, Reisman, Mara. “Integrating Fantasy and Reality in Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.” Rocky Mountain Review, 65.1, Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, 2011: 11–35, Sánchez, José Francisco Fernández. “Play and (Hi)story in Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion.” Atlantis, 18.1/2, 1996: 95–104. JSTOR, White, Hayden. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973. |