A Pluralistic Universe Of Postmodernism

Jeanette Winterson has been widely acknowledged as one of the most talented and prolific living writers in Britain. Her abiding passion and enthusiasm in the experimentation with narrative techniques and the wide-range of thematic concerns have made her a hot subject of (post)modernist study. Her latest work The Powerbook, which has received little review, should be representative of the present-day view of the author in thought and art. The present study attempts to conduct a postmodernist reading of the novel, that is, through an analysis of such postmodern narrative features as embeddedness, metafiction, spatio-temporal transgression, indefinite beginning and open ending, and intertexuality in the book, the thesis aims to unveil and demonstrate how Winterson reforms or reconstructs a new postmodern world, a pluralistic and fluid universe out of her fragmented, non-linear and indefinite narration. And it is also hoped that the study can help bring out the "power" Winterson has imbued into the book, and shed some light on the understanding of the unique creating style as well as the profound thematic concerns of the author.The thesis is constituted of three parts. The first chapter is an introduction which includes an overview of criticism of the author and The Powerbook, and a brief review of the related postmodernist theory. The second chapter concentrates on the analysis of the fragmented, non-linear, and indefinite narration of the novel, focusing on the embeddedness, metafictional features, temporal and spatial transgression, indefinite beginning and open ending, as well as intertexualilty. After a detailed analysis of the postmodernist narrative features, the third chapter concludes with a summary and further comment on the novel and the author.