Time and Space in Jeanette Winterson's Work
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Discussions on the nature of time and space represent one of the most recurring topics in Jeanette Winterson’s fiction. The author repeatedly challenges the generally accepted notions of time as chronological and measurable by the clock and offers alternative perceptions of temporal and spatial realities based primarily on subjective experience. The aim of this paper is to examine these alternative visions and discuss the ways in which binary oppositions related to time and space, such as reality/fantasy, objective/subjective or inner/outer, are deconstructed in Winterson’s work, particularly in the novels The Passion, Sexing the Cherry, Written on the Body, Gut Symmetries and The Gap of Time. The paper focuses on the author’s perceptions of history, which is presented as a mere social construct, and analyzes the ways in which Winterson disrupts the distinction between the past, the present and the future. Moreover, Winterson repeatedly portrays love as an all-powerful force defying spatial and temporal boundaries and thus allowing the emergence of an alternative, timeless reality bound by no rules or limitations. The paper discusses this special significance of love and passion in the novels and examines Winterson’s alternative conception of the world, where the mind is freed from social conventions and where time no longer has any meaning, since different temporal and spatial layers can operate simultaneously. |
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