Queer,Subversion And Initiation

Jeanette Winterson(1959-)is one of most outstanding contemporary writers in Britain.Being keen on homosexual themes and post-modern narrative techniques,she is regarded as one of most controversial writers in Britain.Her first novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a bestseller and wins the Whitbread First Novel Award.This novel tells an initiation story about the protagonist,Jeanette who struggles for her lesbianism within a religious environment.Her maturation is composed of three stages including growing confusions,subversion,and exile and return.This novel boldly narrates the subject of the protagonist’s homosexual love and embeds biblical stories,fairy tales and legends in the narrative.Many critics mainly interpret the novel from the perspectives of post-modern narrative features,feminism,ethical literary criticism and trauma theory.This thesis uses Judith Butler’s queer theory to analyze the initiation theme in this novel.This thesis consists of five parts.The first part briefly introduces the life experiences and works of Jeanette Winterson,foreign and domestic research of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit,the theoretical basis and the innovation of the thesis.The first chapter analyzes Jeanette’s spiritual and physical confusions caused by conflicts between religious doctrines & schooling and her homosexual tendency & the religious identity.She cannot fit into school life because of her queer words and behaviors caused by these conflicts.The second chapter analyzes Jeanette’s subversion to binary oppositions including masculinity & femininity,male & female,and heterosexuality & homosexuality.Jeanette casts off normative gender identity,gives up religious identity and embraces her lesbianism.She realizes the restrictions of heterosexual hegemony and gender dichotomy,questions and challenges the dominant discourse which heterosexuality is predetermined.The third chapter analyzes Jeanette’s exile and return.Finding out the deceits of her mother and the hypocrisy of the Evangelical church,Jeanette chooses to leave her home and pursue independence.After her exile,Jeanette chooses to return hometown and make a reconciliation with her mother.Winterson emphasizes the reconstruction of a harmonious relationship between the mother and the daughter,which reflects her quest for a harmony or balance between heterosexuality and homosexuality.The last part is the conclusion.During the process of her initiation,Jeanette succeeds in constructing and deconstructing the religious identity,and reconstructing the queer identity.By analyzing the process of Jeanette’s maturation,this thesis reveals the oppression of heterosexual hegemony and gender dichotomy upon people.Winterson portrays a queer figure that reflects her subversive spirit to traditional conventions and her quest for a harmonious and healthy environment.