The Wheeler Centre Jeanette Winterson: 40 Years of Storytelling
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Jun 4, 2025 Jeanette Winterson, the acclaimed English writer behind the iconic novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, dives deep into the transformative power of fiction. She emphasizes how stories, particularly those of women, can reshape our realities and inspire resilience. With humor and candidness, Jeanette reflects on her strict religious upbringing, revealing how it influenced her ideas of love and identity. She also explores the complexities of happiness and memory, urging listeners to embrace the fluidity of storytelling and challenge fixed narratives.
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Fiction as Freedom and Change
- Fiction lets us escape fixed identities and situations, offering endless possibilities.
- It reminds us that life and society are stories we can change, not fixed laws like gravity.
Society vs. Fluid Identities
- Society tries to impose fixed, essentialist views of gender and normality.
- Fiction reveals these to be mere stories, not natural laws, empowering us to redefine ourselves.
Bovaryism and Women's Realization
- After 'Madame Bovary,' a fictitious disease called "bovaryism" alarmed men fearful of literature's impact on women.
- Women readers found solidarity and recognition of their confined lives through literature.
