Katedra Anglistiky a Amerikanistiky Bakalářská Diplomová Práce 2020
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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 5 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 6 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. 7 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 8 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 (Why Be Happy 33). 9 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).