“That Awful Occasion”: The Connection Between Adoption and Authorship in the Life Writing of Jeanette Winterson

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dc.contributor.advisorKersten, D.
dc.contributor.advisorWilbers, U.M.
dc.contributor.authorKersten, M.
dc.date.issued2016-07-18
dc.description.abstractFounded on theory from the interrelated fields of life writing, literary theory, and trauma theory, this thesis critically investigates the correlation between a sense of vocation (authorship) and a desire to escape from an oppressive environment or painful past (adoption, in particular) in the life writing of Jeanette Winterson. How does the representation of adoption as trauma in Jeanette Winterson’s semi-autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) and in her memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (2011) contribute to the construction of her authorship? In Oranges, Winterson is unable or unwilling to work through the trauma of adoption, whereas she seems to employ narrative techniques to actively work it through in Why Be Happy. By means of detailed reading, trauma will be demonstrated to be a site of identity. By implication, recovery has far-reaching effects on an individual’s selfhood and an author’s authorship and posture.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1964
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.thesis.facultyFaculteit der Letterenen_US
dc.thesis.specialisationEngelstalige letterkundeen_US
dc.thesis.studyprogrammeMaster Letterkundeen_US
dc.thesis.typeMasteren_US
dc.title“That Awful Occasion”: The Connection Between Adoption and Authorship in the Life Writing of Jeanette Wintersonen_US
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