A Trauma Study Of Jeanette Winterson's The Passion

Jeanette Winterson, the prominent writer in contemporary United Kingdom, is referred as a "new woman writer". Her first novel,Oranges are Not the Only Fruit,causing a great response,won the Whitbread First Novel Award and was adapted for TV series. The themes of Winterson's novel are various, including love, feminism, religion and war,reflecting not only the social realities,but also the ideal life. The passion is Winterson's second novel,which attracts a large number of readers with magical realism.Nevertheless, most of the domestic comments are some introductory articles. This study of The Passion is from the perspective of traumatic topics to explore the value containing in this novel. This novel provides emotional inspiration in our complex life to guide people how to deal with trauma and overcome the negative impact of trauma, so that they will have a better life.From the perspective of trauma theory, the first part of this thesis analyzes The Passion from four aspects, including war, love, women and believe. Trauma theory is used to explore the two main characters, Henry and Villanelle, who withstand the difficulties and injuries throughout the whole work, from the brutality of war, to the disappointment of love, to oppression of women, and to the illusion of believe. Then, based on the experience in trauma and recovery,this thesis analyzes how the protagonists could survive and reborn from the trauma. Finally,this thesis analyzes Winterson's trauma experience in her early age and the later effects for writing this novel. Henry and Villanelle, who kept memories of pain by writing, or let it go to recover them, are both heal and grow in their trauma experience. Winterson handles different narrative methods proficiently, and readers could be brought into the war hundreds of years ago to feel the fate and suffering of the characters in the novel.