Jeanette Winterson's Enchanted Science Estor, Annemarie Citation Estor, A. (2004, April 28). Jeanette Winterson's Enchanted Science. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/9924 Version: Corrected Publisher’s Version Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral License: thesis in the Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/9924 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). Jeanette Winterson’s Enchanted Science Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Dr. D.D. Breimer, hoogleraar in de faculteit der Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappen en die der Geneeskunde, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op woensdag 28 april 2004 klokke 16.15 uur door Annemarie Estor geboren te Gouda in 1973 Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof. Dr. Th. L. D’haen Referent: Prof. Dr. J.H.W. Kusters (Universiteit Maastricht) Overige leden: Prof. Dr. J. Neubauer (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Dr. V.M. Tinkler-Villani Prof. Dr. B. Westerweel © 2004 by Annemarie Estor ISBN 90 803219 4 X Published by Talkingtree, The Hague Prepress by .DOC, The Hague Printed by Universal Press, Veenendaal Limited edition of 150 copies The cover photo shows Stefania Bonfadelli in La Traviata - Theo Tekstra, 1999 I For the lady of the sloppy flans and the man who risked what he valued H Abbreviations used OAF Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit BFB Boating for Beginners TP The Passion STC Sexing the Cherry WOB Written on the Body GMA Great Moments in Aviation AL Art & Lies AO Art Objects GS Gut Symmetries TWOP The World and Other Places TPB The.PowerBook CONTENTS Introduction . vii 1 Science and Literature . .1 Tensions and Vistas ............................................................................................ 2 Two Cultures ........................................................................................................ 5 Understanding Science ....................................................................................... 9 The Influence Model ........................................................................................ 11 Deconstructing Difference .............................................................................. 17 Defining and Demarcating .............................................................................. 19 The Sokal Affair ................................................................................................ 28 Jeanette Winterson, Science and Literature ................................................... 29 2 Enchantment as Resistance . .35 An Outline of Historical Periods .................................................................... 35 Winterson and the Enlightenment ................................................................. 41 Winterson and Romanticism ........................................................................... 53 Winterson and Twentieth-Century Modernity ............................................. 61 Winterson and Postmodernism ...................................................................... 66 Enchantment as Resistance ............................................................................. 78 3 Place, Space and Uncertainty . .81 Aesthetic Antidotes ........................................................................................... 81 Two Metaphors of Space and Place ............................................................... 89 Unstable Environments ................................................................................... 97 Influence and Intertextuality .........................................................................101 Creative Interpretations of Science ..............................................................105 4 Time and History . .107 The Notion of Time in Science and Literature ..........................................107 Simultaneity and Relativity .............................................................................113 Time Travel ......................................................................................................117 Strange Simultaneities .....................................................................................122 v Jeanette Winterson’s Enchanted Science Eliot and Winterson ........................................................................................125 The Grid: Physics and History ......................................................................131 Postmodernism and Time ..............................................................................133 Science and Literature Revisited ...................................................................140 5 ‘Science has no Sex?’ On Gender and Rationality .143 Sameness Feminism ........................................................................................144 Deconstruction Feminism .............................................................................145 Difference Feminism ......................................................................................152 The Male Gaze .................................................................................................158 Feminine Language, Feminine World ..........................................................163 A Feminist Critique of Science .....................................................................176 A Feminine Science ........................................................................................183 6 A Literary Critique of Medicine . .185 Scepticisms .......................................................................................................185 Surgery and Ethics ..........................................................................................193 Paternalism and the Construction of Medical Reality ...............................194 Two Physicians ................................................................................................196 A Medicine of Love ........................................................................................199 The Role of Literature in Medical Ethics and Medical Theory ................203 Conclusion . .207 Appendix I: Overview of Main Characters . .211 Appendix II: Overview of Winterson’s Novels . .213 Bibliography . .219 Samenvatting . .235 Curriculum Vitae . .243 vi INTRODUCTION It used to be that the real and the invented were parallel lines that never met. Then we discovered that space is curved, and in curved space parallel lines always meet. (TPB 94) Real and invented, the world of objects and the human imagination, science and literature, Jeanette Winterson weaves these apparent oppositions together in an oeuvre that celebrates the power of love, beauty and language. In an attempt to remove the barriers between the rational and the poetic, she mixes her opinions of consumerism with transcendent thought, incorporating brief treatises on such diverse topics as quantum physics, breast surgery, and communication technology, while echoing postmodern literary theory and quoting from Romantic poets such as William Blake and Modernist poets like T.S. Eliot. For Winterson, her art is a crusade against a predictable and unimaginative reality that denies that there is more than meets the eye. Winterson was born in 1959, and grew up in Accrington, Lancashire, a Northern-England working class town, where she was raised by her adoptive father and mother. They were members of a Pentecostal church. Winterson grew up being told that she belonged to God and had been chosen by God, and that because he was empowering her, she could achieve anything (cf. Lord 1996). She was destined to become a missionary, and was already preaching at a very early age, which may explain the uncompromising tone of much of her writing. When she was sixteen she left home because her love for other girls was not tolerated. To earn a living, she worked in a variety of jobs, ranging from ice-cream van driver and make-up artist in a funeral parlour to domestic assistant in a mental hospital, experiences that enriched her imagination and provided her with much of the imagery she would use throughout her work. In 1978, she was admitted to St. Catherine’s college at Oxford, where she studied English Language and Literature. It was here that she started reading Virginia Woolf, one of her main sources of inspiration. After leaving Oxford, she worked in a theatre for a while, until her first novel appeared, at age 26. Soon she found an enthusiastic audience. Her work was widely translated, and soon began to appear on syllabi of literature courses around the world. She earned herself a reputation not only for the beauty vii Jeanette Winterson’s Enchanted Science of her stories but also for her often hostile attitude towards critics and for her wild lesbian love life. She lived in London until 1997, when she fell victim to a depression. She moved to the countryside together with her steady girlfriend, Margaret Reynolds. Since then, her attitude towards critics and academics has become milder. She started an interactive website and is still writing and publishing. A remarkable side to Jeanette Winterson’s writing is her notorious relation to the press. Winterson’s debut in 1985 aroused much enthusiasm. The press were extremely excited. Her work was considered highly original. She won several prizes, and Gore Vidal called her “the most interesting young writer I have read in twenty years”, which