Narrative Strategies And Female Subjectivity In Jeanette Winterson’s Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal

Facilitated by the theoretical paradigm of feminist narratology, this thesis centers upon the female protagonist in Jeanette Winterson’s 2011 memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, attempting to affirm the positive effect of three narrative strategies in the construction of the heroine’s subjectivity. It argues that double focalization, communal voice and embedded narrative levels are the three constructive strategies to elucidate the heroine’s integrated subjectivity through enacting her as a gazing, speaking and nomadic subject.With regards to the heroine’s gazing subjectivity, this research argues that it is the application of double focalization from the heroine’s experiencing and narrating self that endows her the authorized position as the gazing subject. At the same time, the position prevents her from possible objectification from the focalized characters. The thesis continues to demonstrate the process of the attainment of her speaking subjectivity. The argument goes that the adoption of communal voice facilitates the regain and recognition of her voice. Meanwhile, a reciprocal intersubjective mother-daughter relationship is advocated to benefit the heroine’s speaking subjectivity. To discuss about the constitution of the heroine as a nomadic subject, embedded narrative levels will be explored to see its constructive effect. What is included in this part is the implication of demonstrating the heroine’s nomadic subjectivity, which overthrows the problematic understanding of one’s subjectivity as fixed and invariable. The conclusion summarizes the above findings and reiterates the positive effect of the three narrative strategies in the construction of the heroine’s subjectivity.Combining the related theories of feminist narratology and feminist criticism, this research will hopefully enrich the interpretation of Winterson’s recent works from the perspective of feminist narratology.