A Study Of Narrative Identity In Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit And Lighthousekeeping:a Ricoeurean Ethical Perspective

Jeanette Winterson is one of the most prominent and controversial writers in contemporary British literature.Previous studies mainly focus on postmodernism,feminism and lesbianism represented in Winterson's works.This thesis analyzes the construction of narrative identity in Jeanette Winterson's two novels,namely,Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Lighthousekeeping from a Ricoeurean ethical perspective.The thesis emphasizes the role of fictional stories embedded in the two novels and highlights the power of storytelling in the construction of the narrators' as well as the author's identities.Paul Ricoeur argues that narratives,especially fictional narratives generated by creative imagination,are never ethically neutral.These stories provide readers with a vision of the world which embodies the narrator's moral judgments and ethical values,and leave the reader to choose among multiple proposals brought forth by reading.In Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Lighthousekeeping,fictional stories like fairytales,fables,chivalric romances,biblical narratives and literary allusions are sporadically interpolated in the frame stories which depict the growth of Jeanette and Silver—the protagonists in the two novels.These fictional narratives create spaces detached from the constraints of reality,provide the narrators and the writer as readers of their own narratives with multiple moral situations which incorporate diversified moral dilemmas and conflicts implying the narrators' and the author's moral judgments and ethical values,and offer them the freedom to choose among multiple moral proposals that transcend the limitations of their real lives.For Ricoeur.narrative is regarded as human's practical activity which is constituted by two parts—writing and reading.Thus construction of identity through narrative is also twofold.Narrative identity is constructed,on the one hand,through configuration of narrative and narrating a consistent and complete life story,and on the other hand,through reading these narratives and reader's interaction with the textual world.Through interaction between the narrative and reader's real life experiences,narrative provides the reader with a space to make inquiries on the ethical choices he is confronting in the real world,which will influence his decisions and actions and shape his identity.Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Lighthousekeping are both considered semi-autobiographies of the writer Jeanette Winterson as the protagonists in the two novels Jeanette and Silver share similar experiences with the author.Depictions of Jeanette's growth in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit parallels Winterson 's journey from a child brought up under strict religious doctrine to a lesbian searching for balance between lesbianism and Christianity.In Lighthousekeeping,Silver's mental growth represents the author's struggle to restore confidence and balance after the mental collapse in her "dark decade".Fictional stories in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Lighthhousekeeping present multiple worlds which parallel the real lives of the narrators Jeanette and Silver as well as the author Jeanette Winterson herself,proposing moral judgments and ethical values that will influence readers' ethical choices.These stories help Jeanette,Silver and the author Jeanette Winterson as readers of their own narratives to achieve understanding of their present moral situations,stimulate their ethical choices and action and shape their identity.Apart from establishing narrative identity through reading,the narrators Jeanette and Silver and the author Winterson are able to construct their identities by synthesizing diversified and discordant narratives into coherent life stories through which they achieve self-consistency and consciousness of their past,present and future.In Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Lighthousekeeping,Jeanette Winterson explores the issue of construction of narrative identity through storytelling,and offers those who are torn between multiple sides of their personalities a way to strike a balance between each sides and achieve a balanced identity.Winterson's works not only provide narrative as a way to establish people's identity,but also bring hope and comfort to those who are confronted with the predicaments in their lives.