Revivifying the art of storytelling : measuring the desire for infinite space and silence in Jeanette Winterson’s later fiction.

Abstract

This essay probes into the neglected aspects of Jeanette Winterson’s writing by reflecting on what she proclaims to be a “new exploration” of fictional possibilities from Lighthousekeeping onwards. Focusing on her later fiction—Lighthousekeeping, Weight, The Stone Gods and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?—I examine her writing as a complex narrative system that perpetually reworks novelistic space to perfect the art of ellipsis; the process of which crumbles the epistemological foundations of grand narratives and culminates a state of imagined weightlessness which liberates her characters (as well as her readers) from earthbound knowledge. I also illustrate how the author’s focus in her later fiction is predicated on her desire for infinite space—to transgress textual, lexical and existential boundaries for the progressive realisation of unconditional aesthetic freedom. I argue that she constructs her body of works around key patterns of silence that demand her continued engagement in the experimental reinvention of storytelling. On the whole, these texts can be interpreted as vital commentaries on the power of art and language to create meaning, as well as on the limitations and possibilities of human knowledge.