Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta

Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky

Bakalářská diplomová práce

2020 Anna Fučková

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature

Anna Fučková

The Outreach Quality of Jeanette Winterson’s Works

Bachelor​’​s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A.

2020

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently,

using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

……………………………………………..

Author’s signature

First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor for her patience as well as her contagious passion for the topic which inspired me to write this thesis in the first place. Then I would also like to thank other teachers as well as my former classmates from the English department for believing in me and supporting me when I was losing faith in myself. And last but not least, my loving partner deserves praise for taking care of the practical aspects of my life during the time this thesis was being written. Thank you all again.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 5

Introduction 6

Religious and Literary background 8

The Nemesis 13 Sexual Discrimination 14 Feminism 21 Other 28 The Notion of Not Belonging 28 Environmentalism 30

Seek Ye the Library 31 Audience 31 Art as a Mirror 32 Lessons in Love 34 Only Connect 41 Modernist Influence 42

Conclusion 43

Works Cited 45

Resumé 47

Summary 48

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Introduction

Reading Jeanette Winterson’s work, especially her heavily autobiographical novel ​Oranges

Are Not the Only Fruit as well as her memoir ​Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal is probably a totally different experience for the common reader in the Anglophone world as opposed to most readers from the Czech Republic due to the degree in which these two cultures differ in their experience with the evangelical pentecostal movement. In this formerly communist country in the heart of Europe, which prides itself on being one of the most atheist countries in the world, the Christian faith as well as many other religions are disregarded or widely ridiculed; this is especially true about those Christian movements, which do not have a tradition in the Czech lands reaching back several centuries. I can therefore imagine how Winterson’s description of the pentecostal church and its rigidness might awaken strong negative emotions or disgust toward the establishment in Czech readers. My experience, however, is a little different, since I, just like

Winterson, grew up in a similar, yet much healthier, religious environment and therefore some of the events she mentions probably are more familiar to me than to my Czech peers. With this in mind, I could not help but notice how much her other novels sound familiar; not only in the literary sense, but mostly in the religious sense.

This present thesis claims that the works of Jeanette Winterson possess a very strong outreach quality, making the author a preacher of sorts. She, however, does not “preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23), she chooses to preach literature, and its unique saving power from discrimination and oppression, which stems from social ignorance or intolerance. With her own experience with the church only leaving her misunderstood and ostracized, she found refuge in literature and its various forms, inviting other people to do so as well. I believe that Winterson hopes to reach out to not only those people who feel rejected, weak, or discriminated against, but

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also to their oppressors, and to those, who choose to fight against the oppression of others. Her aim transcends humans, even, for Winterson also preaches in favor of the rights of the Planet Earth in ​The Stone Gods​. The salvation offered by literature is, this thesis argues, made possible thanks to identifying and therefore feeling sympathetic with characters in various works of literature, including, of course, Winterson’s own novels. To achieve this, Winterson uses several literary devices which are further analysed in part “Only Connect” of the thesis. Winterson aims at breaking up boundaries of perceived normality and tradition (​Oranges ​110) which allows the reader to re-consider his or her values and beliefs, or to feel encouraged to fight for their rights if they are being oppressed.

First, the thesis elaborates on Jeanette Winterson’s background from two points of view - the religious environment as well as her own experience with literature which both heavily influenced the birth of Winterson as an author. Second, the focus shifts on the nemesis against which Winterson preaches, which is oppression or abuse of various types including racial discrimination, sexual discrimination of many forms, as well as environmental abuse of the planet.

And lastly, the thesis mentions the various forms of Winterson’t literary outreach in her novels.

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Religious and Literary background

As it is quite often with artists, Jeanette Winterson’s background is also strongly reflected in her work. Though she claims that it is impossible to elicit from the author how much of their writing is or is not based on their own experience (​Art Objects 28) even when it comes to semi-autobiographical books (​Why Be Happy 6), it comes to people naturally that their life experience and way of thinking manifests itself in one’s artistic expression; in other words, the consequences of your life “stam[p] who you are” (16). For Winterson, one such influence was her religious background.

Being adopted into a family of Pentecostal Christians of the Elim Pentecostal Church in

Accrington, Jeanette Winterson was led from a very young age to learn about stories from the

Bible, and even encouraged to learn whole passages by heart (26, 41). Not having, sadly, experienced love at home, Winterson remembers that it was the belief in the unconditionally loving God that helped her cover for this deficiency (22) and also give her life at that time some sort of a meaning sice people are, in her words, “meaning-seeking creatures” (68). Now without engaging in a philosophical conversation about whether there is or is not a God, the sole notion of reading or hearing about God’s love proclaimed in the Biblical stories, gave young Winterson hope in the difficult family environment she was surrounded by in her childhood. This was also true for the whole community; the church-goers, having a common higher purpose, seemed to forget about their troubles, and engaged in selflessly helping enrich the community life (69-70). However good-willing the community was, it also had a very rigid set of rules by which one was supposed to live their life (72); when the then teenage Winterson broke these rules by deciding to stay true to herself, her sexuality, and her passion for literature, which was secular for the most part, she was rejected and excluded (38). Rejection is generally very difficult on a person, especially so when the

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person is rejected from a community which had already been a source of exclusion from the wider public in the first place; Winterson therefore knows what it feels like to be ostracized by the people around you for being different, which is a theme that plays a major role in her fiction.

In her memoir, Winterson mentions that her adoptive parents intended to raise her as a future missionary, a preacher to convert souls to Christianity (88). Therefore the family was heavily involved in the church and its outreach programmes. The ​Collins COBUILD Dictionary defines these events as “schemes [which] try to find people who need help or advice rather than waiting for those people to come and ask for help” (“Outreach”); in the Christian community, these are often acts of charity or a full-on evangelization, i.e. an event meant to try to convert non-Christians to the Christian faith. Jeanette Winterson, who was exposed to a great amount of preaching, might have also been led to preaching on certain occasions herself, as suggests the book

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit​. With her natural passion for words, one should not be surprised that she has retained a preacher quality not only in her writing, but, as professor Franková observed, in her oration as well (Franková).

Jeanette Winterson as a writer is not set to convert people to Christianity, though, but it is true that she does reach out to certain groups of people through her writings. She draws inspiration from her personal struggles with her identity within a community which did not embrace it, be it the church, or the secular community of her peers at school (​Why Be Happy 7). There seem to be three main groups of people she hopes will be affected by her novels: The oppressed, the oppressors, and those who help fight oppression. This will be further analysed in the “Only

Connect” chapter of this thesis.

The outreach factor of Winterson’s work is as though she were the “fisher of men”

(Matthew 4:19) by as if entrapping the readers in the web of the story and once they find out what is in the book, it is too late for them, as Mrs. Winterson used to say (W​ hy Be Happy​ 33).

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Another important aspect of Winterson’s religious background is in her writing style, which could be described as magical realism. I believe that this particular aspect of her writing was at least partially influenced by the custom of her church of seeing God’s or Satan’s work in every single aspect of the members’ lives. This is supported by the fact that the members of Winterson’s church were ready to pray over the mundanest of things, such as a hen which would not lay eggs, or good weather for doing the laundry (31-32, 69); a caricature of such a person, who casts all their anxieties on the Lord (1 Peter 5:7) is “Testifying Elsie” from Winterson’s ​Oranges (23). In the Old

Testament, there is a story about a battle during which God stopped the passage of time given by the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, just so one of the armies could win (Joshua 10:13). Given that Winterson grew up in an environment where such stories were told and believed to be true, and that she was used to seeing their prayers answered all around her, it is only natural she is able to look at the world through this magical lens and write stories where the supernatural is perceived as quasi-normal.

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Poetry Saves

Due to Winterson’s restrictive religious background, she was exposed to neither a lot of secular literature nor to non-fiction growing up (​Why Be Happy ​37, 72), maybe in fear of deciding against the Christian faith after being influenced by the thoughts of the “heathen” as her adoptive mother liked to call non-believers (33); as Christians they were, after all, “called to be apart”

(​Oranges 42). According to Winterson, when she was a child, they only had six or seven books at home, only half of which were non-religious (​Art Objects 153). She recalls being read to ​Jane Eyre by her adoptive mother who, very persuasively, changed the narrative of the story as to make it more convenient to be able to bring up young Jeanette as a future missionary (​Why Be Happy

102). This propagandistic, for lack of a better word, potential which Mrs. Winterson sensed in literature, is now being used by Jeanette Winterson in her own work in order to help those who are oppressed in today’s world.

Gradually, purposely without the knowledge of her mother, Winterson began reading the forbidden secular fiction on her own accord in the public library and even began buying her own books which she then hid in the house (40-41); the fact that she began reading English literature by the alphabet and not by anybody’s recommendation, indicates that she must have had been really deprived of her passion and wished to tackle as much literature as she could (​Why Be Happy 33,

39). Her secret reading sessions brought her solace and happiness previously unfamiliar. The more she read, the more she felt connected to the writers, as if they were her friends whose messages she would find in bottles (116) as though her isolated life within the church community represented being stuck on a stranded island. Books became her sanctuary, a home even (61), where she could be understood, accepted, and even celebrated through the characters with whom she identified; books were a “magic carpet that flies [one] elsewhere," a means to escape the harsh reality (38).

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Winterson also refers to literature and art in general as to “medicine”, which only highlights the amount of help and healing she found in it during the dark times of her life (42, ​Art Objects

156-157). Furthermore, poetry especially is, thanks to the easier way of reciting it by heart, described as a “light [which] shows up [one’s] true situation and [...] helps [one] cut through it”

(115); if then Winterson found her salvation or at least some kind of healing through art, her natural penchant to writing combined with her experience as a future preacher, and gave rise to

Jeanette Winterson as a preacher to the oppressed, a preacher in writer’s clothing, that is.

The author mentions that literature provided her with comfort and understanding; nevertheless once she reached the letter N in her alphabetical system of reading English prose, and read Nabokov’s ​Lolita​, she felt betrayed by literature for the first time (122) since the content of the book heavily clashed with Winterson’s growing feminist and individualist beliefs. On the other hand, Winterson’s fiction is heavily influenced by Modernism and its “only connect” rule which aspires to bring different people, “the beast and the monk” (Forster chapter 22) closer in understanding each other better. The modernist influence can also be seen on the similarities in the writing style of Jeanette Winterson and Virginia Woolf; this influence will be further analysed in part “Modernist Influence” of the thesis.

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The Nemesis

At the beginning of ​Oranges​, Winterson states that to Jeanette’s mother “there were friends and there were enemies," enemy number one being “The Devil (in his many forms)” (3). Shortly after the fictional Jeanette’s excommunication, when she was, of course, not allowed to preach at church anymore, she imagines, with increasing determination, that she will still continue doing so in a way - she “won’t lose [her] power," she will, however, “use it differently” (143). Just like the fictional image of the adoptive mother wished Jeanette to fight against the many forms of devilish influence using her spiritual gifts, real-life Jeanette Winterson decided to fight against the more tangible nemesis - discrimination, also in its many forms, using her gift of language.

It is impossible to argue as to whether the author experienced the malicious deeds of Satan or not, but she was definitely oppressed by fellow humans. Perhaps it was the narrow-mindedness and rigidity of not only the church, which made her more sensitive to various forms of oppression in the world. Winterson’s novels are bountifully inhabited by characters who either experience some form of discrimination in their stories, or they would probably be exposed to it in the real world. She herself admits an inclination to the “underdog” narrative, since she feels she can identify with these characters (Why Be Happy 35). And it is through them, when one sees a character with whom they can identify, be acknowledged, be explained, be able to overcome severe difficulties, or even be the praised hero of the story, that they can feel heard and understood; not only that, other people can begin to see it as well.

Given Winterson’s personal experience with how her sexuality brought her in discord with the church, it is not surprising she would want to bring the focus in her stories on sexual discrimination - not only about how the LGBT community is often treated, but also on the fact

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that women are often also subjected to some form of patriarchal oppression. Let us now analyse the instances in Winterson’s novels where the LGBT topic is discussed.

Sexual Discrimination

“Do you deny you love this woman with a love reserved for man and wife?” is the question

Jeanette is asked by her pastor in ​Oranges after it is revealed she fell in love with a girl (103).

Through this question it is insinuated that there is only one type of love allowed by the community, and that is heterosexual love within a marriage. The questions which followed, again posed by the church elder, even suggest that by loving somebody of the same sex defies loving God.

This, however, does not make sense to Jeanette, and, as Mara Reisman observes, “[she] does not understand how loving Melanie [...] can be wrong” when “Melanie is a gift from the Lord” that should be appreciated; this reasoning “reconcile[s] lesbian love and religion” in Jeanette’s mind

(22). It does not, however, in the eyes of the church, who probably do not wish to punish Jeanette by trying to cast out her “demon”, instead, they do so in the effort of “saving” her based on the following interpretation of homosexual behavior that is likely to be popular in some evangelical churches: If God creates every single person according to his wishes (Psalm 139:13), and if God loves people (1 John 4:7), he would therefore not create a person with non-heterosexual tendencies, since other passions are described by the Bible as “unnatural” and “sinful” (Leviticus

18:22). Once somebody engages in a homosexual relationship, then they are deliberately acting against “God’s will”. By denying scientific evidence, which is, unfortunately, also one of the sad mistakes of some of the churches, non-binary or non-heterosexual people can be viewed as demon-possessed and may be proposed to have the demon casted out and be thus “freed”. This approach is problematic on many levels, of course, since it is not based on any scientific evidence whatsoever, and it only consists of a chain of assumptions based on mere interpretations of biblical

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verses, which can be understood in several ways, provided one decides to believe in Christian theology in the first place.

However, sometimes devout believers do not accept any other perspective, nor hard facts, due to confirmation bias. By denying their dogmas that they had been probably taught since childhood, they risk losing not only their support circle in the religious community, they also inevitably risk losing a part of their own identity. Due to this potential conflict with and possible excommunication from the church, besides choosing an LGBTQ friendly church, some people may stay in the closet and decide to repress their sexual lives or keep it a secret. This could be insinuated on the example of Jeanette’s mother both in ​Oranges as well as in ​Why Be Happy - in both of them, upon learning of Jeanette’s lesbian tendencies, the mother seems to show some kind of understanding when Jeanette talks to her personally about the topic (O​ ranges 100, ​Why Be

Happy 114). The version of the mother from ​Oranges also “has a picture of [a woman]” in a photo album of her past love interests. “When Jeanette asks about the picture, her mother makes an excuse and quickly turns the page. The next time Jeanette looks, the picture has been removed.”

(Reisman 23) This suggests that she might have engaged in a same-sex relationship before committing to a heterosexual marriage, which could possibly be just an attempt to appear as

“normal” in society and be therefore better accepted in it. The title of ​Why Be Happy When You

Could Be Normal is an actual phrase asked by the mother after learning about the author’s lesbianism and how it makes her happy (114); it is possible that Mrs. Winterson was never happy

(22, 52) and never loved her body (66) due to this very repression. The acceptance at church is not threatened once one is in a heterosexual marriage, and no one cares whether or not the two have a

“normal sexual relationship” (81); due to the fact that it seemed like should one describe Jeanette’s adoptive parents’ marital bed as a workplace, the two would be working separate shifts, as well as judging by the sex manual Jeanette Winterson found in her mother’s home in pristine condition

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(103), and by the alleged sexual appetite the father exhibited with his second wife (20), she questions whether or not they ever consummated the marriage. In ​Oranges​, the mother even talks about one time she was seduced by a Frenchman and she believed that what she was experiencing was falling in love; however, she later found that the weird sensation was caused by a stomach ulcer

(83), and therefore she was perhaps confused as to whether she was sexually attracted to men at all.

Another instance from ​Why Be Happy which could be interpreted in the same sense is the exasperated or rather desperate quote in which Mrs. Winterson judges young Jeanette. The

“What’s bred in the bone comes out in the marrow” (82) proverb is hereby explained as the reason why Jeanette began living sexually in her mid-teens, just like her biological mother, but which could also be interpreted as the adoptive mother’s desperation that her sexually confused upbringing of Jeanette could have potentially influenced her in coming out as a lesbian. As

Winterson admits, the Dog Woman in ​Sexing the Cherry is “another reading of [her] mother”

(​Why Be Happy 36), and this character is characteristic of her self-righteousness, especially when it comes to sexuality: Once she finds a puritan preacher, who claims he fears lust most of all, in a brothel letting loose and engaging in all kinds of sexual activity that he usually bans from the pulpit

(​Sexing the Cherry 23, 32), she kills not only him, but also his lover (95). This might express the exasperation from others who do not suppress their sexuality and still benefit from the community’s acceptance due to their false persona.

Drawing from her own experience, Winterson decides to include LGBT characters in her novels in an attempt to try and ameliorate their normalization in today’s literature. Sometimes it is by describing their ordeal caused by rejection, the ordeal the character had to endure and what victories they achieved in their personal struggle against oppression, and sometimes their orientation is only a simple fact, which does not add anything to the person’s fate. The first approach is for the oppressed to not only feel sympathy and understanding, but also to their

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oppressors as a bid to try to sympathize with their fellow human beings, and for both of them to see that one’s sexual orientation is nothing to be ashamed of, on the contrary, it can be a source of pride. The second “colorblind” approach is the most powerful, in my opinion, since it highlights the fact that no matter who you are or who does or does not attract you, we are all humans, valuable to society, which we all form together. The discussed matter here, for instance sexuality or feminism, is of little importance since it is regarded as normal, even mundane, that it does not even stir any passions from the author’s point of view. Winterson does this to all of the disadvantaged groups discussed in this thesis. Let us now focus on other non-straight characters from Winterson’s novels besides Jeanette.

There are other non-heterosexual people in the novel apart from the main character. The two women who own a newsagent’s shop (7) are described as lesbians, and this causes prejudice in

Jeanette’s mother, who then forbids the girl from going to the shop. If a rumor, true or not, spreads along with prejudice, it is not only harmful to the individuals, who are probably disappointed about being rejected, but also to their business. A very similar instance of such two ladies is in one of Winterson’s short stories called “Atlantic Crossing”, where there are two ladies boarding a ship along with the narrator, who, upon seeing them, notes: “lesbians I’ll bet” (​The

World and Other Places ​21). He later learns that these two ladies are, indeed, homosexual, and that they are even missionaries, who “have been in Trinidad for thirty years” and who “taught three generations of hockey teams. They are on their way home to buy a farmhouse together in Wales and get a dog called Rover” (27). Once the protagonist gets to know them personally and finds out about their long term relationship as well as their beneficial role in the society, he realises they are happy and that they do not need a man in their lives in order to achieve that. On the example of these two lesbian couples, Winterson tries to show that despite what some people might say, homosexual orientation does not have to be a phase in which one tries to find oneself, it is a

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legitimate part of one’s identity. These people do, just like the general population, usually long for lasting relationships and they also wish to grow old with a significant other. Another instance

Winterson tried to highlight is the fact that the women from the latter story are missionaries. Now this could be interpreted in two ways - either the couple does proclaim God’s love and spread

Christianity, which proves that there can be non-heterosexual Christians and missionaries as well, but it could also mean that the two are preachers in the sense which this present thesis suggests; they proclaim compassion and understanding by testifying through their happy life in a committed lesbian relationship.

In the same short stories collection, the following text called “The Poetics of Sex” is centered on a lesbian couple, Picasso and her lover, the narrator, and this lovely text with heavy poetic features serves as a sort of a Frequently Asked Questions forum. It shows not only the rudeness and ignorance of those who pose these questions, e.g. “Which One Of You Is The Man?”

(34) or “Why Do You Hate Men?” (40), the gracefulness of the responses, which do not address the questions in a direct manner though still manage to answer them, shows how the lovers are so immersed in infatuation with each other that they can easily dismiss the rude, prying individuals.

The narrator feels as if having been relocated on an island with other lesbians, detached from the coast of the heterosexual “Mainland” and where there are being exhibited on guided tours as though animals in a zoo. The guide is the one who poses the questions asked by the tourists, though nobody is really interested in hearing the genuine answers (45). This approach demonstrates how ignorant and hurtful some people still are when it comes to LGBT topics. What might be at fault are fairy tales which are presented in some form or another to children from their infancy, and these help create certain boundaries for the child in order to distinguish certain concepts in later life. They, however, solidify gender roles and societal expectations, which might be difficult to erase upon learning more about the world.

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The novel ​Sexing the Cherry contains a passage where Jordan, on his quest to find

Fortunata, comes to meet her sisters- eleven of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, who share their stories with him. The whole encounter is dream-like and some of the stories possess fairy tale or poetic features. The whole concept, in fact, is as if an encounter of fairy tales with the harsh reality.

The twelve princesses, sisters, are to be given in marriage to twelve princes, brothers, and then they

“lived happily ever after [...] but not with [their] husbands,” (48) they add. Let us now focus on the example of the fifth princess, who happened to be a lesbian. The reader learns that she is known in popular culture as the witch who imprisoned Rapunzel in the high tower. She refuses this interpretation and explains that she and Rapunzel were, in fact, lovers in a consensual relationship, Rapunzel’s family, however,

were so incensed by her refusal to marry the prince next door that they vilified the couple,

calling one a witch and the other a little girl. Not content with names, they ceaselessly tried

to break into the tower, so much so that the happy pair had to seal up any entrance that

was not on a level with the sky. [...] One day the prince [...] dressed up as Rapunzel’s lover

and dragged himself into the tower. Once inside he tied her up and waited for the wicked

witch to arrive. The moment she leaped through the window, [...] the prince hit her over

the head and threw her out again. Then he carried Rapunzel down the rope he had brought

with him and forced her to watch while he blinded her broken lover in a field of thorns.

(52)

This is, indeed, not a princess one would traditionally think of while recalling the fairy tales one is presented with as a child. As Reisman observes, “for women, fairy tales inform real marriage expectations. Thus, fairy tale and reality mix [...] in our cultural expectations, demonstrating how pervasive and insidious these stories are” (18-19) provided one does not wish to live a life determined by social expectations. The prince who kidnapped Rapunzel took her as his wife and

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the two “lived happily ever after, of course” (52), concludes sarcastically the now blind princess, since no other ending is expected by the fairy tales which end in a wedding. Nobody knows

Rapunzel’s perspective on the whole matter; it is possible she went in denial under the pressure of the expected gender role she was to play according to the society, but it is also possible that her suffering is hidden under a veil of societal norms and expectations. It is possible that this story is a reference to Melanie from ​Oranges,​ Jeanette’s past girlfriend who was made to renounce any homosexual relationships, and got married to an army man (121) and the reader never learns how that relationship goes on. Not all non-heterosexual characters are depicted as oppressed in

Winterson’s fiction, though; let us now focus on the ones which face no rejection on grounds of their sexual orientation whatsoever.

One of ​The Gap of Time’​ s protagonists is Xeno, the modern alter-ego of Shakespeare’s

Polixenes from his ​Winter’s Tale​. In Winterson’s adaptation of the play, the two childhood friends, Xeno and Leo, are lovers for a short period in their teenage years. After their short detachment following a near-fatal injury, they go their separate ways only to be reunited several years later (31). Leo settles with a wife in adulthood, whereas Xeno is described by his biological son Zel to be “basically gay” and who only has fathered a child as a result of an arrangement with

Zel’s mother (170). Both in the original play as well as in the adaptation, Xeno is unjustly accused of seducing Leo’s wife MiMi, resulting in her pregnancy. There is no infidelity, the jealous husband, however, is not convinced and attempts to murder Xeno, probably thinking of his homosexuality as of a phase in his teen-years that is now passed. Though there is some attraction from MiMi’s side, there is no “erotic edge” (208) with her, nor with Perdita, MiMi and Leo’s daughter (177). Even though Xeno is oppressed by Leo, it is not because of his sexual orientation; he is one of those characters whose sexuality is not taken as anything shocking, which helps normalize LGBT characters exactly the way that the straight characters’ sexuality is not questioned

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anywhere. Another instance of a normalized LGBT character from the same novel is Lorraine

LaTrobe, who is a trans woman, as the readers learns at the end of the novel. Though it is not clear as to why is the fact important in the story, Winterson might be trying to start a discussion about transgender people through this character, which is, as the text suggests, still generally misunderstood by the older generation (282).

Feminism

I hope that nobody looked at the outline and thought “How foolish to claim that

Winterson is an anti-feminist”. That is, of course, untrue. Jeanette Winterson’s works are a celebration of feminism and women, and this sub-chapter aims to analyse the instances and characters which support this argument.

Winterson mentions an incident in her memoir that “helped turn [her] into a feminist;” it was the irony of the moment when they, as pupils at an all-girls high school, were supposed to sing a song called “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men”. This made her think about the shortage of famous women that people could praise and sing about, and “vowed to [her]self that [she] would be famous and [...] be praised” as well (98). She also recalls another incident - her realization of the metaphorical long journey female writers had to make in the past in order to be allowed to write or be published in the first place (138), and how there was still an incredible shortage of them and how “further apart” they were among books written by male writers in her “English Literature

A-Z” reading project (117). It is not surprising, then, that she herself decided to contribute to the literary cultural heritage with sharing glimpses of not only her own mind, but also the minds of other oppressed or empowered women through her novels.

It is difficult to choose which character to talk about first in the manner of importance, since all of them help contribute to female empowerment, so let us instead focus on those

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characters who played major roles in Winterson’s most famous works. In spite of the fact that there is a female protagonist in ​The Gap of Time,​ the lost daughter Perdita, Pauline from the same novel serves a much better example for the purposes of this thesis. She is the perfect example of the high-achieving level-headed woman in business who shows a great deal of capability, and in comparison to the neurotic Leo who she works with, seems as though an angel in disguise. It is not only her temperament where she exceeds him, she’s also described as “much better educated, much better qualified, much better person than Leo” (34), she only took a subordinate position because she is aware of her weaknesses as well as she is of her strengths, and gives Leo recognition where recognition is due. She is also described as a loyal friend, and she is constantly putting out fires that

Leo is causing. Despite all this, he does not appreciate her enough; he is suspicious that she aims to bankrupt his company by giving too much money to charity, but this suspicion only stems from his uncontrollable trust issues and the fact that he cannot seem to control her (35). In addition to that, she is described as a content childless single woman, who does not regret her choice of a career-woman (98). In the original ​The Winter’s Tale​, Paulina is married, so Winterson wrote her single alter-ego as a feminist on purpose. She also keeps a glimpse of Paulina’s marriage to

Antigonus in the insinuation that ​The Gap of Time​’s Pauline and Tony are on the cusp of starting a romantic relationship as well, but Tony’s tragic death arrests any further development. The fact that Pauline remains single, hints to the possibility, that she is simply self-sufficient and does not look for a long-term romantic partner. The author implemented this empowered middle-aged woman in the story because she wanted to show that it is not only males who can be capable of such successful lives, on the contrary, it is often society which “hoxes women and pretends that

God, Nature or the genepool designed them lame” (​Art Objects 62). She also wanted to show how little do some men appreciate the women around them, since, in the words of her former schoolteacher, “a woman alone is no longer of any interest to the opposite sex, she is only visible

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where she has some purpose” (​Why Be Happy 132). The fact that Pauline does not seem to care whether or not Leo gives her credit, and still does the job she does well, shows her independence and empowerment.

It is not only the role of a protagonist, that may exhibit female empowerment; in ​Oranges​, for example, the main antagonist is also female in the character of the mother. This shows the great amount of power the woman possesses, that she is not only able to manipulate with Jeanette, she also causes the church elders as well as her husband to do as she says; in no way is she a submissive wife. Now this evaluation is not meant in either positive or negative way, it is merely a statement, that female power can also be exhibited in such a way as it is in the mother.

Another one of Winterson’s novels presents a female protagonist, or rather two at the same time. Billie and her Robo Sapiens companion, Spike, appear in ​The Stone Gods in three different pairs of characters as the story progresses in a time spiral, and these characters are re-born and get to live again. In two out of the three situations, the first and the last, Billie and Spike are women. Both of them happen during a time where the society had somewhat progressed toward feminism, unlike the instance in the middle, where the two are portrayed as two males, Billy and Spikkers, in the 18th century. It can be argued that this was done for two reasons; firstly, it is possible that

Winterson tried to highlight the fact that in the 18th century, women had only a limited span of socially acceptable roles they were expected to fulfill, and being a seaman exploring faraway lands was definitely not one of them. The second reason is that the writer aimed to break the boundary between the genders by making a link between male and female alter-ego, which is supposed to show that the two are, in fact, more similar than they are different.

This interchangeability between the genders is also hinted through the character of

Villanelle from ​The Passion​. She does not change her gender literally, however, she enjoys cross-dressing from time to time and presenting herself as a young man; she even wears a codpiece

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and a moustache (56). This duality is also displayed through her bisexuality (59 - 60). The feminist element, however, is present the most strongly in the fact that Villanelle’s body, though biologically seemingly female, had inherited a trait reserved to male boatmen only; that is, her feet were webbed, which meant being able to walk on water as well as inheriting the trade (49).

“There,” however, “never was a girl whose feet were webbed in the entire history of the boatmen

[...] The midwife took out her knife [and] tried to make an incision [...] but [it] sprang from the skin leaving no mark” (52). Though it is never claimed explicitly, this physical anomaly might be

Winterson’s aim to “tak[e] a playful swipe at early theories on homo-sexuality, particularly

‘inversion’ theories of lesbianism [...] and the notion of ‘psychic hermaphroditism’,” (French 250) in other words to bring closer attention and compassion to people who are intersex or transgender.

Other than that, it also shows that even though society puts pressure on certain people to do or not do a certain profession, for instance the trade of boatmanship being done by males only, it is but a social construct which can be broken. Another character which prominently exhibits features associated with both men and women, is the character of Dog Woman from ​Sexing the Cherry​. She is not necessarily asexual, since she does feel attraction and a desire for romance, however, she mentions how all of the few sexual endeavors that she attempted failed miserably, and she does not seem too curious sexually (34, 121). She is a woman indeed, but she possesses certain qualities, which are traditionally assumed to be male, especially strength and violence. In addition to that, she is also very independent and self-sufficient for a woman from the 17th century, and her

“narratives are introduced with the phallic icon of a banana” as opposed to those of her son, which are “hailed with a more feminized pineapple;” due to these qualities, she “defies sex and gender stereotyping” (French 243). Her independence is the more striking because she is not being referred to by her name, instead, she is known by her profession, and this lack of a name hints to a lack of a master. On the other hand, she also exhibits certain attributes which are generally ascribed

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to females. She has very strong motherly instincts both when it comes to care, or protection, which knows no bounds and even leads to threatening with “maternal rage” (​Sexing the Cherry 162) or murder (69). She also expresses a great deal of selfless loyalty to the King or to her loved ones, whom she takes care of until they die of plague (160). Besides her being ambiguous in terms of her gender, she is also not the most common type of a female protagonist; the character of Dog

Woman has depth due to the negative qualities she possesses. Usually with main female characters, one of their most accentuated characteristics is their good looks, which are essentially missing here.

How hideous am I?

My nose is flat, my eyebrows are heavy. I have only a few teeth and those are a poor show,

being black and broken. I had smallpox when I was a girl and the caves in my face are home

enough for fleas. [...] As for my size, I know only that [once] I thought to try and outweigh

[an elephant in a circus] myself. I had taken a look at him and he seemed none too big to

me. [...] There was a great swooning amongst the crowd, and I heard a voice compare me to

a mountain range. [...] I took a deep breath [...] and threw myself at the seat. [... The

elephant’s] chair swung empty. [...] What it says of my size I cannot tell. (19-21)

Even though Dog Woman contemplates the level of ‘hideousness’ everybody else seems to perceive about her, she does not seem bothered by it, because she only cares about the opinion of Jordan, her son, who she is not sure whether he “noticed that [she was] bigger than most he never mentioned it [and was] proud of [her];” (21) she even uses her unconventional looks to her advantage in order to be smuggled to the King’s execution by making herself even less attractive and therefore not dealt with and recognized (71-73). Looks aside, her loyalty, which is certainly a positive quality one can have, reaches, unfortunately, extreme, unrefined, levels, to the point where she takes self-righteously matters in her own hands and does not hesitate to mutilate (147) or murder people (96). “This fluid understanding of identity,” in both examples from ​The Passion as

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well as ​Sexing the Cherry​, “fosters a more egalitarian possibility for relationship between the sexes than that offered by prescriptive heterosexual discourses” (French 248).

Winterson also raises awareness to some feminist issues through these narratives, which are, unfortunately, still not entirely a thing of the past, and that is the imbalance in pleasure in a heterosexual intercourse. The reader might not be too surprised to read about a daughter from the

17th century being told by her mother that “men take pleasure and women give it” (121), but the awareness comes when the same woman’s alter-ego from the future mentions basically the same thing: “I had sex with a man once: in out in out. A soundtrack of grunts and a big sigh at the end.

He said, ‘Did you come?’ Of course I didn’t come” (145). The fact that Winterson claims in “The

Poetics of Sex” that there are “no frigid lesbians” (42), hints that men sometimes do not try hard enough to understand their partner’s sexuality as well (​Sexing the Cherry 145). Another feminist topic that Winterson points out through the story is the shortage of female heroes in popular culture. Jordan’s alter-ego from the 20th century, Nicolas Jordan, talks about the types of movies his father likes to watch. He mentions that the ones about the ocean cast male actors as members of the ship crew, and how the movies aim to raise confidence in the male audience by writing stories about seemingly less-masculine men, who, in spite of being ignored by the traditionally looking hero types at first, rise to the occasion and manage to save the day from an impending doom (133).

The space films he watches, follow a similar strategy - in these, however, it is women who get more screen time as well as importance, perhaps because sci-fi tends to be a futuristic image of the world.

Women in such films “are sometimes scientists rather than singers or waitresses. Sometimes the women get to be heroes too, though,” as Nicolas concludes, “this is still not as popular” (136). Nor is too popular writing about women, whose story is essentially based on being disobedient or disloyal to their husbands, which is also a topic in this novel. The Twelve Dancing Princesses share their stories how all of them were married to princes, but how none of them were happy and

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therefore returned back to their sisterly abode. Some of them were not even heterosexual, but had to get married under the pressure of the princes’ demands. Some of them were abused or cheated on. But let us focus on the last story, Fortunata’s. Her story is the same as the one of Artemis, about which Winterson writes in ​The World and Other Places​. Artemis wished to transform her inevitable fate of a bored future wife who would be expected to have children and stand forever in her husband’s shadow, instead she wanted to take responsibility of her life, hunt, be the hero, whose lives she envied. As she was travelling the land by herself, she was joined by Orion, who represented a man who would still be praised as a great hero despite his recklessness and selfishness; after Artemis suffered through the uncomfortable day with him, he raped her. This, of course, was a shock, but she had mustered enough confidence to commit to her desired life of a heroine; a possible consequent marriage to Orion would put that in peril, so she decides to kill him (S​ exing the Cherry 150-154, ​The World and Other Places 55-63). She is free to be the woman she wants to be now, but this came at a terrible cost of not only sexual assault, but also the fact that she killed a person as well.

As another example of female empowerment being misunderstood by men, could serve the tale of the quest for the perfect princess from ​Oranges.​ In this story, a prince decides to settle for the best bride only, and searches for a perfect woman. He manages to find such a princess, who fulfills all his expectations, and he graciously offers her his hand in marriage. After she politely refuses and thus “disrupts [his] expectations and the fairy-tale marriage” because she “refuses to let her destiny be defined by the prince’s [will]” (Reisman 16 - 17), he is so enraged that he eventually has her executed (​Oranges 64). The princess is misunderstood by him, because she is only seen through the gender lens or a male usurpator. When she “do[es] not conform to [the subordinate role as a woman],” she is punished by him (Reisman 18). The prince sees himself as an irresistible match, and probably viewes the refusal as a personal offence as well. A very similar example can

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also be seen in the short story “Atlantic Crossing”, where the middle-aged narrator, Mr. Duncan

Stewart, who was not lucky in his romantic relationships, falls in love with his female companion during a cruise. Upon investigating his feelings toward her, he decides that given his ability to provide his wife with material goods, he must be an incredible match to somebody, who is, in his words, “a little black girl [...] in a strange place without friends or money," and the “world isn’t interested in [their] dreams” (​The World and Other Places 25-29). She, however, refuses his marriage offer, and is later described as though having “the sun inside her” (30), arguably signifying her innate self-sufficiency and independence from anybody.

Other

The Notion of Not Belonging

This broad topic will only be mentioned briefly, since LGBT and women’s rights seem to be the main narrative in Winterson’s novels. The notion of not belonging to a group is also an important one, which, in fact, encompasses the aforementioned topics as well. Winterson, unfortunately, struggled with this feeling in her family, which adopted her legally, but seemed to never have adopted her in their hearts; instead, they made her seem she took the place of the child they had originally wished to adopt, Paul: “The one who would never have drowned his doll in the pond, or filled his pyjama case with tomatoes,” and for whom the couple had already bought a set of baby clothes (​Why Be Happy 201). According to Winterson, the baby given up for adoption is always conscious of the loss of the mother and of its further graftage on the adoptive family (180).

Not surprisingly, adoption is a common theme in her works: besides the obvious Jeanette and her counterpart Winnet from ​Oranges,​ it is also Jordan from ​Sexing the Cherry is a foundling, Perdita from ​The Gap of Time​, and even a dog in “The 24-Hour Dog” short story. These adopted

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individuals experience various degrees of acceptance in their new families. Jeanette always feels unwelcome in her family’s house, and the dog from the short story is taken back to its previous owner after just a day, but Jordan and Perdita are lucky enough to be adopted by people who love them. In the case of these two, it is possible they are better accepted due to their families having been ostracized in the first place. Jordan is found by a lonely, strange woman, and Perdita is saved by a family of African Americans, Shep and Clo; they feel solidarity with the baby, since they are aware of how society can treat somebody, who is different from the rest, and they decide to give her a home. By rewriting Shep and Clo as African Americans, Winterson also starts a discussion about racism in America by incorporating in the story, that the two, despite being innocent, were very close to having been framed for the murder of Tony (T​ he Gap of Time​ 189).

Another example, which could be interpreted as an exploitation of a race, is the half-sentient Robo sapiens, Spike from ​The Stone Gods​. Even though “inter-species sex is illegal,” she is used as a sex toy on the spacial cruise as “the most advanced member of the crew,” with the justification that she is “still a woman” and that the law has no voice outside the planet (33 - 34).

The fact that the men in ​The Stone Gods universe built a robot which looks exactly like a woman, just so they could abuse it while still profiting from its intellectual qualities, sounds like a patriarchal dystopia, where the men might grow desentisized of women as though of equal partners. Spike, however, becomes more humanized with the progression of the individual timelines, and her companion learns that she had grown a human heart. This character might represent the process of increasing companionship one might experience once they decide to become more open-minded; the emergence of Spike’s beating heart could, in this case, represent one’s realization of other people’s humanity, perhaps even in the racial context. This novel addresses mostly a different issue, which is relevant to every single one of us: the planet Earth.

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Environmentalism

A planet, having no human voice, can be difficult to decipher to some; Winterson offers to be one of its advocates by having written ​The Stone Gods​. This dystopian work discusses the poison that is human greed, which leads the planet’s inhabitants to abuse it to its gradual death; as

Kopáčik puts it, the “human encroachment upon the planet’s environment is likened to [sic] heinous sexual assault” (35). The people are obsessed with their “thin [... and] thinner” (​The Stone

Gods 28) bodies kept in perfect shape, state, and condition, thanks to biological enhancement, which makes them bored with natural looks or ordinary sex (21). They manage to find a planet suitable for human life, Planet Blue, and decide to use it as their future home. They suppose, in their “Judeo-Christian anthropocentrism,” that they are “grant[ed ...] the power to rule over the

[...] God-given planet” (Kopáčik 44), without realising, that it needs this sort of inhabitants the same way “a bed needs bedbugs” (​The Stone Gods 26 - 27). On their way over to cause what could be described as a dinosaur genocide, it is revealed that humanity had already destroyed and relocated from at least one planet, which serves as a painful reminder of history being repeated.

The novel then reveals that the planet Earth, which we now live on, and which we are also slowly abusing, might be the very Planet Blue discussed at the beginning of the story. This is accentuated on a parable about a man, who was forced to repeat his fate, which is further analysed in “Only

Connect” part of the thesis.

Closely tied to the environmental question is also the topic of animal rights. Winterson says, in her interview for CCCB, that she, despite not having “a problem with eating animals,” she is discontent with “the way [people] look after animals, and animal welfare” (0:10 - 0:17). She also admits to keep some farm animals, which, despite killing and eating them, she ensures to “have

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great lives” (0:19 - 0:31). Though some might disagree, this thesis argues that Winterson’s approach in this matter cooperates with the tone of mutual compassion as a whole.

Seek Ye the Library

Audience

The answer to the question “who is Jeanette Winterson’s missionary work as a writer addressed to” is threefold. Firstly, the works serve as though a soothing balsam for the oppressed.

Books, or the stories hidden within, function as a sanctuary, where one can feel explained, heard, understood, as well as vindicated through the characters one identifies with at least to an extent.

Secondly, upon closer examination of the arts, one might find that it is not as much the viewer, who judges the art, it is the art piece judging the viewer and revealing to them instead some things which the viewer might not even have been aware of. (​Art Objects ​108); so the second group

Winterson’s message is addressed to is the real or potential oppressor, and the subtle indirect message is for the oppressor to repent and try to change their perspective. The third group of

Winterson’s audience are the ones who are already fighting for social justice and are well aware of the issues in society. These may feel some sort of encouragement to continue “fighting the good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12), and, translated to Christian terminology, these people could be described as regular church-goers who attend church service in order to feel encouraged by the message as well as to keep in touch with their community.

Jeanette Winterson knows full well all the faces of the church. But besides the the rigid rules and the consequences of breaking them, she also knows how supportive such a community can be and not only that; the belief itself can also be a source of support, confidence and, to some,

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even one’s meaning of life. Some of the Pentecostal churches’ doctrines claim that besides the physical world, there exists also a spiritual world, invisible to biological eyes, which is occupied by spiritual creatures both good and bad, such as angels or demons, besides God and the Devil, and imagine there is a battle between these two camps. They also attribute events from the physical world to have been contributed to by one of the spiritual parties, and imagine themselves, as

Christians, as though warriors, which can be used in the spiritual battles. What Jeanette Winterson describes in her autobiographical works corresponds with this particular doctrine; Jeanette’s alter-ego from ​Oranges is shocked by the rejection from her fellow schoolchildren when she talks about how her mother allegedly saved a friend from dying of a sunstroke by “stay[ing] up all night struggling mightily” in prayer for healing (37). One of Paul’s books from the Bible talks about the importance of putting on an “armor of God” in order to “be able to stand against the schemes of the devil [and] the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:11-12) He then continues in describing the metaphorical parts of the armor and what they represent, for instance the “belt of truth,” (6:14) “shield of faith,” (6:16) or “helmet of salvation, and the sword of the

Spirit, which is the word of God” (6:17). It is not surprising, then, that this can be appealing to some believers, since they feel like real warriors. Winterson’s approach does not urge anybody to believe in the spiritual world, but she also fights with weapons, which are not physical in the strict sense: the feelings, which are conveyed by art.

Art as a Mirror

In ​Art Objects,​ Winterson writes extensively on the matter of the impact art can make on someone once they decide to be influenced by it, or, as she words it, to “surrender” to art (6). Once the boundary between the art piece and the viewer is breached, it evokes certain feelings in one; it

“opens the heart” by expanding one’s capacity to feel, even (7). It is so, because works of art,

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including literature, of course, are carefully and consciously created to have the very effect, to

“stimulate consciousness” (26). It has the magical ability to “coa[x] out of us emotions we normally do not feel” (108), because it comes from the worldview of another individual, who might think and operate in a manner, that is unknown to us. Getting to know other people’s art broadens one’s horizons by venturing on guided tours into the minds of other people. It is through an art piece that the artist can connect with its audience and communicate their own feelings to those, who are willing to listen (92-93). Winterson also describes art as the best communicator of emotions there is (99), and artists are, in her words, translators (146). One could argue, however, that they are not only translators, they are also teachers or preachers who give people lessons to teach them non-romantic love, which, as Winterson believes, can (6) as well as should be learned

(​Why Be Happy 78). She draws from her personal experience, where she “did not know how to love” but needed to be taught to do so; this supports the argument that she is now urging others to open their hearts and minds as well (186).

Since her weapon of choice in the fight against oppression and ignorance is language,

Winterson writes stories that are supposed to appeal ideally to all three groups of readers that she wishes to influence and to “work along the borders of [their] minds and alter” one’s perception of the world (A​ rt Objects 26). She still possesses the power to reach people’s emotions and speak to their hearts, just like a good preacher does, she only does so through books, and uses it to a different purpose (​Oranges 143). Before her excommunication, it was the church which provided her with a certainty (98), now, is it books that represent a safe space, a home (​Why Be Happy 61), a guiding light (115), a source of strength, an altar, even (​Art Objects 131). As Sara Ruddick writes,

“Children are shaped by - some would say imprisoned in - the stories they are first told. But it is also true that storytelling at its best enables children to adapt, edit, and invent life stories of their own” (98). The metaphorical walls, which represent “institutionalize[d] and naturalize[d] [...]

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behaviors and beliefs,” (Reisman 11) are built by these stories to either protect or limit (​Oranges

110), and they are increasingly more difficult to tear down with increasing age. As they were built by stories, it is also possible to break these boundaries through them, and here Winterson tries to act as the corrective agent, which helps alter these structures in their weak spots (Reisman 11). It is no wonder, then, that Mrs. Winterson tried to prevent Jeanette from any exposure to ideas other than the church’s such that might lurk in secular books. She probably suspected that once Jeanette reads them and learns about the outer world, it might be “too late” (​Why Be Happy 33) to try to keep her within the boundaries established by her as a mother with the help of a church, because the stories hidden within those books would cause the carefully built walls to undergo certain changes. Jeanette Winterson therefore sees this as a mission, to use her voice to set those people, who are restricted by their walls, free through literature.

Lessons in Love

In ​Stone Gods,​ there are glimpses of the social obligation to “educate people how to feel", so that they can understand and treat better not only each other, but also the Earth; it is hinted that this can be done so through art, namely poetry, due to its strong link to emotion (170). Even though the version of Robo sapiens from the post-war era says she it is “impossible for [her] to experience emotion," which she only detects as mere “change in [one’s] body temperature and breathing,” (169) when it comes to her Robo sapiens predecessor from the beginning of the novel, everything changes when ​she​ is having a poem explained:

He explained first of all the line, and then the poem, then he put the book into my hands

and looked at me seriously, in the way he does when he wants something, and he said, ‘My

new-found land.’

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He left, and I went back to my data analysis, and I thought I was experiencing system

failure. In fact I was sensing something completely new to me. For the first time I was able

to feel. (80-81)

All of a sudden, this robot specifically programmed to be devoid of emotion feels this digital wall fall down, and as a symbol, Winterson highlights this shift by writing the robot to have grown a beating heart thanks to this incident (110). The emotional aspect of art is very beneficial for a number of reasons. Firstly, the viewer learns something about themselves, their tastes, emotions, which are otherwise hidden, or it simply enables them to use art as a mediator to help them express certain feelings; instead of judging the art, it is the art who judges the viewer through its “deep and difficult eyes” whose “gaze is [...] insistent” (​Art Objects ​ 10-11).

In addition to that, viewers “fin[d] pleasure in recognition;” Winterson admits that she tends to like stories where the “little guy/underdog” plays an essential part, because she herself is short (​Why Be Happy 35). This identification with a character which exhibits characteristics common with the viewer is a natural response, which Winterson uses to her advantage in her novels. When one is experiencing a tough situation, such identification can have a redemptive effect (Reisman 26), even when one makes up these stories oneself; doing so was young

Winterson’s way of coping with the lack of love at home, and she describes it as a “wa[y] of surviving” where “refusal to be broken lets in enough light and air to keep believing in the world”

(​Why Be Happy ​ 21).

Secondly, “it is connection that we seek. Connection to the past, to one another,” (​Art

Objects ​13) and art is a great tool for that, since it “shows us how to be more than we are” (93).

Even though getting in touch with one’s own feelings is beneficial, learning about other people’s emotions and understanding them trains one in compassion, because “stories [help one] understand the world” (​Oranges 29), and help ameliorate not only interpersonal relationships, but

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potentially even social issues on a bigger scale, hence bringing people closer together. The fact that in spite of all differences, we are still humans, who have to deal with similar problems as people from the opposite side of the Earth is nicely illustrated in the short story “The World and Other

Places”:

Bombay. Cairo. Paris. New York. I’ve been to those places now. The curious thing is that

no matter how different they are the people are all preoccupied with the same things, that is

the same thing; how to live. We have to eat, we want to make money, but in every pause the

question returns: How shall I live? (T​ he World and Other Places​ 95)

The final question could serve as a transcending rhetorical question to the reader - How shall ​you live now that you are aware that the world is full of fellow human beings, who have the same needs and feelings as you? This call for compassion is strongly present all throughout Winterson’s work; in order to establish a connection between the text and the reader, she uses several literary devices.

The Second Coming might be at any time, and it was up to us to put all our efforts into

saving souls. The action kit, which had been specially designed by the Charismatic

Movement Marketing Council, explained that people are different and need a different

approach. You had to make salvation relevant to them, to their minds. So, if you visited a

sea people, you used sea metaphors to pass on the message. (​Oranges​ 34)

This is an example of identification, a technique which is probably known to everyone who has ever worked in sales: once the client identifies with the story presented to them, they are more likely to buy a product; this technique is also used in literature, though those artworks whose sole intention it is to promote an idea tend to be forgotten after the “contemporary interest in its ideas” had passed with time (​Art Objects 70). Winterson tries to marry the functional with the beautiful, the “lyric intensity and breadth of ideas,” (173) perhaps in order to be still able to touch the hearts of those generations which will have solved all of the social issues her novels deal with. Today’s

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society is not like that, however, so Winterson uses literary devices to draw the reader into the story and make them feel involved as much as possible.

The most prominent technique is using parables, which is also something typical for the church setting, where ordinary non-spiritual things remind believers of “the sneak-thief ways of

Satan” or “a soul who turned from Jesus - proud and unproductive” (W​ hy Be Happy 69). In

Oranges,​ there are multiple instances of such a narrative, and these usually stem from fairy tales or medieval legends. The most important parable from this novel is when Jeanette reiterates over her circumstances as well as her decisions through the character of Winnet Stonejar, which is an imperfect anagram of the author’s name; this story, just like the whole novel, bears traces of autobiographical elements, which makes it a fairy-tale-like story with autobiographical traits contained within a fairy-tale-like story with autobiographical traits.

In the story, Winnet crosses paths with a sorcerer, representing the manipulative ways of her mother, and he adopts her. One day Winnet falls in love with a boy, but the sorcerer is enraged and banishes her from his house (143), whose doorstep Winnet must be carried over every time she wishes to leave or enter the house, lest she should fall asleep (141). This might represent the fact that Winterson was in fact never given the key to her parents’ house, and had to be granted access to the house - or not, every single time (​Why Be Happy​ 60).

Before Winnet could leave, though, the sorcerer secretly ties a silver thread to her garment

(​Oranges 144); this corresponds to Jeanette’s feeling that her mother had done the same thing to be able to bring her back home whenever she wanted (155) - in fact the moment Jeanette returned home after some time, the mother did not even answer the greeting as though her daughter never even left (158, 164). The way the fairy tale narrative blends so easily into Jeanette’s life shows how she created it in order to explain certain unpleasant aspects of her life, that are difficult for her to understand, and to give herself hope, in the image of a rough brown pebble (110, 128, 144), that

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no matter what obstacle or enemy might stand in her way, she will take them down in one hit of the pebble.

In her real story, she “uses [it] for protection and magical power” by holding it and hoping for an unpleasant situation to pass (133), but “unfortunately, simple fairy-tale power does not work in reality. [...] As this failure of magic suggests, wielding power in the real world is more complicated than in the early, simpler fairy tales” (Reisman 28).

Another instance of a parable, or rather twelve of them, are the tales of the Twelve Dancing

Princesses from ​Sexing the Cherry​. Their stories, however unbelievable they might seem due to their fairy-tale nature, cover several plausible reasons as to why they all came back, husband-less, to live with their sisters again. All of the princesses were given to the princes in marriage on account of a ruse (48), so none of them chose their husbands in the first place, therefore the reader might have more sympathy toward the sisters’ former marriages. There are some women among them who are not heterosexual, some whom were abused, and some of whom simply had no desire for a relationship. Even though some of the symbols used are not straightforward, it can be argued that thanks to its ambiguity, when one wishes to find something in the text, the text provides an interpretation, thus enabling a larger audience to identify with it, and possibly save them from an undesirable relationship, which might otherwise be difficult to leave.

This following parable from ​The Stone Gods displays the most allegorical features from the list, since it is not only a story, which bears a clear message, the main character, who is the culprit of the story, is easily recognizable as the whole of humanity in relation to our planet:

There was a young man with a hot temper. [...] One night, in despair, and desperate with

worry, he got into a fight outside a bar, and killed a man.

Mad with fear and remorse, [... he] took the revolver that had killed his enemy, [...] and

prepared to blast himself to pieces.

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In the few moments before he pulled the trigger, he said, ‘If I had known that all that I have

done would bring me to this, I would have led a very different life. If I could live my life

again, I would not be here, with the trigger in my hand and the barrel at my head.’

His good angel was sitting by him and [...] interceded on his behalf [in Heaven].

[...] And suddenly, the young man had another chance.

For a time, all went well. [...] Then one night [his past repeated]. (65 - 67)

As years passed, his past repeated itself, over and over again. This chilling impression of the inevitable fate might, however, encourage more people to take action when it comes to the environmental question, upon identifying with the story.

Identification can also be achieved through experiencing the story from somebody else’s point of view. This desire to help the reader understand other people’s perspective, is shown by the author’s dealing with narration in certain books. For example, the novel ​Sexing the Cherry is written in the first-person to facilitate the insight of the character’s observations, thought processes, and emotions, but the effort to accentuate the need to understand other people is hereby shown on the fact that the characters are given separate blocks of narration to enrich the story with their own insights.

Each of the characters who is given such a space, is introduced with a picture attributed to them. As was previously mentioned, Jordan and Dog Woman have pictures of a pineapple and a half-peeled banana respectively. There are three more introductory pictures, however; a dancing princess for each of the twelve sisters, and the two fruits sliced horizontally in half, for Jordan and

Dog Woman’s alter-egos from the future. This, among other things, creates a link between the corresponding people, perhaps as if to show that people from the past were as much people as we are now, which not only supports the idea of connection between individuals, it also hints to the malleability of time itself.

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A similar case of such a connective narrative can be found in ​Gut Symmetries,​ which also contains a minor connection between characters from the past to the ones the story. The connection is between two pairs of lovers, and the story reveals that the sexual relationship of two of the protagonists, Alice and Stella, is actually a repetition of the affair of their parents, Alice’s father, and Stella’s mother Uta.

Once Alice finds out about this, she is not able to “fully distinguish which was [her] father

/ [her]self, Stella/Uta” in a dream she is having (199). The novel also bears a similarity to ​Sexing the

Cherry in respect of the amount of designated space each of the three main characters are given when it comes to sharing their point of view. The narrative consists of three first-person narrators, who take turns within the novel, each metaphorically holding the microphone only in their own chapters. These are introduced by the names of tarot cards, which set the general tone for the passage; for instance “The Star”, narrated by Stella, presents her background because her name means “star” in Latin. “Death” is a chapter in which Alice’s father dies, and “The Lovers” is a passage that reveals the connection between the two sets of lovers. Winterson’s aim to bid the readers to try to broaden their minds by actively trying to understand other people through communication, also lies in the authenticity of the narrations; each character only knows what they have been told, and they learn about others through talking to them.

Besides these most important features, there is also a number of other literary devices in the texts. Winterson uses colloquialisms, her character use modern gadgets and talk in popular culture references, for example David Bowie (T​ he Gap of Time ​27), Back to the Future’s DeLorean (135), and even Wikipedia (41). As is hinted all throughout this thesis, symbolism plays a great role in

Winterson’s writing and helps deliver the message of love and compassion. In addition to that, her works maintain a specific rhythm, which is intended to emanate a poetic tone evoking emotions, besides the novels’ “breadth of ideas” (​Art Objects 173), and this is done through occasional literary

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tropes, such as alliteration1, anaphoras2, repetition of not only phrases throughout a single book3, but also of characters4, short stories across the novels5, and of course metonymy6, name symbolism7

, and by rich visual descriptions.

Only Connect

There need to be clearly defined boundaries between concepts so that they may be evaluated. In her novels, however, Winterson aims to break boundaries and to challenge perceived normality, since as long as there are people who live their lives but do not comply with what the majority perceives as normal, they will probably be oppressed at some point; on the other hand, once there are no rigid boxes to be put in, nobody should feel out of place. The theme of breaking boundaries is constant in Winterson’s writings, be it challenging delimitations of concepts, such as sexuality, gender, species, or simply normality, the novels are often also a challenge to the logical mind and the understanding of reality due to the writer’s propensity for magical realism. Let us now take a look at certain ways Winterson does so.

In ​Sexing the Cherry,​ the borders which are being challenged, as the title suggests, are those of gender. Not only does the female heroine “carry the qualities that we usually, traditionally and stereotypically ascribe to men [...], the [hero is] sensitive, thoughtful [...], idealistic [and] in need of

[her] protection”. The same pattern can also be seen in ​The Passion (Cabák 14 - 15). Characters in both novels use cross-dressing to experience the best of both worlds, and it also hints to a certain

1 “The fucking fuckers fucked” expresses Leo’s jealous rage (​The Gap of Time ​ 77) 2 “I could stay and be […] I could leave and be […] I could beg him to […] I could live in [...]” (​Sexing the Cherry​ 59) 3 Saturday morning. Spring day. (T​ he Gap of Time​ 133, 134, 137, 140) 4 Billie / Billy / Billie, Spike / Spikkers / Spike (​The Stone Gods)​ 5 “A house that celebrated ceilings and denied floors” (S​ exing the Cherry​ 14, T​ he World and Other Places​ 49) 6 A robot’s heart starts beating (T​ he Stone Gods ​110) 7 Jordan is named after a river and wishes to travel a lot (S​ exing the Cherry​ 4) 41

discrepancy should they be put between the boundaries of gender. According to Zuskinová,

Winterson points to a possibility of “Gender multiplicity, or a ‘third-existence’ [...] with the metaphorics of “grafting” or “sexing the cherry” which should give birth to a new kind of cherry, distinctly different from the previous two, yet similar to both,” and, as Roessner observes, the

“third kind here – the hybrids produced – in one sense represents possible gender identities that are neither simply heterosexual nor homosexual” (qtd. in Zuskinová 53).

A very noticeable boundary breaching in Winterson’s novels are those of reality. She writes about people with webbed feet who are able to walk on water (​The Passion)​ , hearts vanishing or appearing in one’s chest (T​ he Passion, The Stone Gods​), diamonds being incorporated in one’s spine due to their pregnant mother’s appetite (G​ ut Symmetries​), or the need of maintenance workers, who have to clean the story up from the inhabitants’ words (​Sexing the Cherry​). In Jana French’s perspective, the literary universe stops obeying the borders of reality and fantasy because of the the

“collapse” of “prescriptive sex and gender distinctions” (237).

Modernist Influence

Winterson’s works show several indisputable similarities to Modernism, even though the writer herself is not a Modernist one. In her essays in ​Art Objects,​ she reserves quite a big portion of the book on analysing Virginia Woolf’s works. Winterson admits that she is a great admirer of the literary movement, and owns many books written by its authors (126). Her own works also bear some similarity with those of modernist writers, especially to those works by Virginia Woolf

(Cabák 33). Woolf inspired Winterson not only in the occasional stream of consciousness, especially present in ​Sexing the Cherry​, but most importantly in Winterson’s tackling of time, especially through the novel ​Orlando (​Art Objects ​73), and narration. Winterson also observes, that

Woolf “smuggled across the borders of complacency [...] lesbianism, cross-dressing” and “female power,” (50) which is yet another thing these two writers have in common.

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Conclusion

Jeanette Winterson draws from the unfortunate clash of her identity with the Pentecostal

Church, as well as from her restricted family environment, especially from the way these two sources of authority treated her poorly not only as a lesbian, but also as a woman. Her aim is to preach the message which helped her get through these difficult situations growing up, which was literature. The way stories gave her hope and understanding was previously unfamiliar to her, and might have also been a source of her mother’s ban on books. Winterson’s aim as a writer is to reach out to people who suffer from oppression, as if a Christian evangelist setting up their gospel tent, and to show them the way to salvation through books. The salvation is not spiritual, but it is not materialistic either. It helps get rid of one’s walls, which represent traditional gender roles, binary sexuality, or any other rigid and untrue representation of individuals, by leading these people to learn how to feel and express themselves through art.

She herself mentions that love is something she had to learn, and she wishes to educate other people in doing so as well. It is not only the oppressed that her novels are addressed to, it is also the ones, who, perhaps because of their own “walls”, choose to discriminate against other people who might not fit precisely within the borders. She does so through guiding these people through her characters’ lives, and shows them different points of view. By doing so, she hopes to would stir love, compassion, or at least willingness to understand other people, and ideally, to contribute to easing the tension in society when it comes to various social issues. The primary sources that were used in this thesis are ​Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (1991), her second novel

The Passion (1988), the magical ​Sexing the Cherry (1991), ​Gut Symmetries (1997), a collection of

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tales ​The World and Other Places ​(1998), her dystopian novel ​The Stone Gods (2008), and the

Shakespeare’s re-enactment of ​The Winter’s Tale,​ ​The Gap of Time (2016). I also used a collection of Winterson’s essays ​Art Objects (1997) and her memoir, ​Why Be Happy When You Could Be

Normal ​(2012).​

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Works Cited

“Jeanette Winterson: ‘I believe in human beings, even though they have done some terrible

things’”. CCCB. Youtube. 21 January 2020. Youtube video. Date of Access 22 July 2020.

<​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZnMSWxJjd8​>

“Outreach”. COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary. 2020. Web. Date of Access 22 July 2020.

<​https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/outreach​>

The Bible. ​English Standard Version,​ ​Bible Gateway,​ 2020. Web. Date of Access 30 July 2020.

<​https://www.biblegateway.com​>

Cabák, Radim. ​Woman and Man or Postmodern Disintegration of Gender Boundaries in Jeanette

Winterson's Prose​. 2003.Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Master’s Diploma Thesis.

IS MUNI​. Web. Date of Access 31 July 2020.

<​https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/hfts4/text.pdf>​

Ellam, Julie. “Jeanette Winterson's Family Values: From ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit to

Lighthousekeeping.’” ​Critical Survey​, vol. 18, no. 2, 2006, pp. 79–88. ​JSTOR.​ Web. Date

of Access 31 July 2020. < w​ ww.jstor.org/stable/41556168​>

Forster, Edward Morgan., “Chapter 22”. ​Howards End.​ Project Gutenberg. Web. Date of Access

23 July 2020. <​http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2891/2891-h/2891-h.htm>​

Franková, Milada. Personal Interview. 13 July 2020.

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​, vol. 10, no. 3 (39),

1999, pp. 231–252. ​JSTOR​. Web. Date of Access 29 July 2020.

<​www.jstor.org/stable/43308390>​

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Kopáčik, Martin. ​The Failure of the Capitalist Mantra in Jeanette Winterson's Gut Summetries

and The Stone Gods.​ 2016. Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Master’s Diploma Thesis.

IS MUNI​. Web. Date of Access 31 July 2020.

<​https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/wb7s9/Master_s_diploma_thesis_Bc._Martin_Kopacik.pd

f​>

Reisman, Mara. “Integrating Fantasy and Reality in Jeanette Winterson's ‘Oranges Are Not the

Only Fruit.’” ​Rocky Mountain Review​, vol. 65, no. 1, 2011, pp. 11–35. ​JSTOR​. Web.

Date of Access 24 July 2020. ​

Winterson, Jeanette. ​Art Objects : Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery.​ First Vintage International

Edition. Vintage Books, Random House, 1997, New York. Print.

---. G​ ut Symmetries.​ Granta Books, 1997, London. Print.

---. O​ ranges Are Not the Only Fruit​. Vintage Books, Random House, 1991, London. Print.

---. ​Sexing the Cherry​. First Vintage International Edition. Vintage Books, Random House, 1991,

New York. Print.

---. T​ he Gap of Time.​ Vintage, Penguin Random House, 2016, London.

---. T​ he Passion.​ Penguin Books, 1988, London. Print.

---. T​ he Stone Gods.​ Penguin Books, 2008, London. Print.

---. T​ he World and Other Places​. Alfred A. Knopf, inc., 1998, New York. Print.

---. ​Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?​. Vintage Books, Random House, 2012, London.

Print.

Zuskinová, Barbora. ​Characterising British Magical Realism Through Selected Works of Angela

Carter, Salman Rushdie, and Jeanette Winterson​. 2016. Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts,

Master’s Diploma Thesis. ​IS MUNI.​ <​https://is.muni.cz/auth/th/peyhz/full_text_revised.pdf​>

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Resumé

Tato bakalářská práce rozebírá díla britské spisovatelky Jeanette Wintersonové v kontextu její křesťanské výchovy, a připodobňuje autorku ke kazatelce, která používá své knihy jako prostředek k oslovení těch, kteří to potřebují. Wintersonová není, ovšem, křesťanská kazatelka, ale místo toho “káže spásu” dosaženou skrze literaturu. Toto “spasení” má kořeny v autorčině osobní zkušenosti, kdy se musela potýkat se složitými životními otázkami, a nalezla pokoj právě v knihách, a svých vlastních příbězích. Ty jí pomohly se vypořádat s těžkými situacemi díky tomu, že byla schopna se ztotožnit s těmi postavami, které v daných příbězích zdolaly ony těžké okolnosti, a tím pádem jí darovaly naději na východisko. Wintersonová má za cíl psát takové příběhy, které mají také potenciál pomáhat lidem, kteří se potýkají s podobnými problémy, jako kdysi ona. Mezi nejčastější témata, kterým se ve svých dílech věnuje, jsou sexuální orientace, feminismus, ale také rasismus, environmentální otázky, a další. Její díla mají pomáhat nejen těm lidem, kteří jsou utlačovaní, a kterým ukazují, že se jim děje bezpráví, ale také těm, kteří podobné jedince diskriminují a utlačují. V takových se autorka snaží vzbudit empatii pro utiskované, ukázat jim věc z jiného úhlu pohledu, a předat poselství o lásce, soucitu a porozumění. Toto všechno dělá za pomoci několika literárních prostředků, zejména díky ztotožnení se s postavou, nebo skrze vysvětlení problému za pomoci podobenství. Tohle boření hranic se také projevuje ve stylu vyprávění, které nese charakteristiky magického realismu, stejně tak jako vlivu Modernismu.

Primární zdroje použity v práci jsou ​Oranges are Not the Only Fruit​, ​The Passion,​ ​Sexing the

Cherry​, ​Gut Symmetries​, příběhy z ​The World and Other Places,​ ​The Stone Gods​, a ​The Gap of

Time​, což jsou romány. Dále ​Art Objects a ​Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal,​ jsou eseje a memoáry.

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Summary

This thesis discusses the works of the British writer Jeanette Winterson through the context of her Christian upbringing, and likens the author to a preacher, who uses their books as a device to reach out to those, who need it. This preacher is not a Christian one, but preaches

“salvation” through literature instead. This “salvation” stems from the author’s personal experience of having to deal with difficult life questions and finding solace in books and her own stories, which helped Winterson cope with her tough situations thanks to identifying with the characters, who, in the stories, overcame their circumstances, and, consequently, gave her hope of a good outcome in the future. Winterson aims to write such stories, which could also help people, who deal with similar problems as she did. Some of her most common topics are sexual orientation, feminism, but also racism, environmentalism, and others. Her works are there to help not only those, who are oppressed, by showing them that they are not in the wrong, but also to those, who discriminate against such individuals; in them, she tries to evoke sympathy for the oppressed, to show them a part of other people’s story, and to convey a message of love, compassion and understanding. She does so thanks to numerous literary devices, most notable of which are identification with the character, or explaining a story through a parable. This breaking of boundaries is also exhibited in the narration, which shows signs of magical realism, and a

Modernist influence. The primary sources used are ​Oranges are Not the Only Fruit​, ​The Passion,​

Sexing the Cherry​, ​Gut Symmetries​, the short stories from ​The World and Other Places​, ​The Stone

Gods,​ and ​The Gap of Time,​ which are novels, and ​Art Objects and ​Why Be Happy When You

Could Be Normal​, which are nonfiction.

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