A02 Flashcards
(11 cards)
What do the fairytale elements allow Jeanette to do?
To express her desires and ambitions when the realist story threatens to stifle her.
It allows her to fill in the gaps of her realist narrative in a metaphorical way.
How can the use of fairytales undermine the Bible?
The biblical stories are juxtapposed by fairytales and the Arthurian legend. This undermines the Bible as it treats it as a set of cultural myths, which like other narrative forms, can be appropriated and revised.
What does Jeanette question through her fairy tales?
Gender roles
What has been the traditional function of fairy tales?
They have been important for their psychological and socialising functions.
The ideas of women being beautiful, passive and complacent are constantly reinforced.
What traditional farity tale convention does Winterson adopt and undermine the traditional values with?
The rule of three.
(In the perfection story, three nights, three days, three years, the woman’s three attributes: beauty, heals the sick, good omen to the crops.)
In the Leviticus fairy tale (perfection) what does Winterson undermine relating to social class?
The idea that moving up the social ladder should not be a priority. The Prince is presented as ridiculous, whereas in traditional fairy tales he would have been a character people strive to be like.
How does Winterson undermine a traditional Buildungsroman approach?
A buildungsroman usually concerns a man.
There is normally a celebratory ending whereby he returns home and conforms to his society. However, obviously, Jeanette, despite coming home, does not do this.
When is the Emperor Tetrahedron allegory?
Exodus, when she is learning at school, she converts her new knowledge into stories.
What is the role of the Leviticus allegory?
She questions the role of gender politics in fairy tales.
It is an allegory for the realist narrative, mirrors the theological disagreement she is having about her mother’s dogmatic views.
What groups of three are there in the Leviticus allegory?
The woman’s three attributes: beautiful, heals the sick, good omen to the crops.
‘For three years the advisers roamed the land.’
The king’s book is ‘divided into three sections’
‘For three days and three nights the court camped in fear.’
what is autofiction?
Where the protagonist shares the name of the author
