How is the traditional notion of subject challenged in "Boating for Beginners?" (Jeanette Winterson)?

Résumé du document

Boating for Beginners is the second novel published by Jeanette Winterson in 1985. It deals with the growing up of Gloria Munde, who seeks her way in the world. The resemblance between Gloria Munde and Jeanette Winterson is striking and some elements of Gloria's life echo Jeanette's: both were raised in a religious environment and had problems with their parents and eventually left home. Christine Reynier in Jeanette Winterson's Le Miracle Ordinaire writes that Boating for Beginners "met en scène un personnage, Gloria, qui poursuit le parcours entamé par Jeanette." Their path is thus very similar. Gloria becomes a "zoo keeper" for Noah, a man who runs a boat company on the Tigris and the Euphrates. Noah is a macho and an opportunistic character that has created God, called "The Unpronounceable" out of a piece of forest gateau. They both secretly decide to flood the world thus reproducing Noah's Ark biblical event. Desi who eavesdrops on a conversation between Noah, his sons and "The Unpronounceable" learns about the flood and tells Gloria, Doris and Marlene about it.

Extraits

[...] The role of the orange demon is to reassure us on the future of the four female characters (Desi, Doris, Marlene and Gloria), on the fact that they are not going to drown. He is free to be part of the story or not: “Unlike the rest of you, I'm not bound by the vagaries of this plot.” (p123), and he knows what is going to happen but teases Gloria (and the reader) who wants to know what is going to happen: I told you that now, it would ruin the ending, wouldn't (p124). The orange demon is thus the authorial voice which is talking to the reader through the narrative. [...]

[...] Boating for Beginners can be read as a bildungsroman in the sense that it shows the development of a young girl who will evolve from ignorance and submission to confidence and knowledge, thanks to the guidance of several characters and the magical voice of the orange demon. Using Gloria as a means to pinpoint social problems and the difficulties individual faces in forging his or her identity, Jeanette Winterson asks a fundamental question to which she brings no answer: What happens when we do not fit in the society we are living in? Gloria's reality is complex and plural and she is involved in an endless questioning of her Bibliography Winterson, Jeanette, Boating for Beginners (1985), Minerva Reynier, Christine, Jeanette Winterson Le Miracle Ordinaire. [...]

[...] That is why they are always concerned with binary oppositions between good and evil, reason and passion, love and hatred, and so on. Jane Eyre, a work by Charlotte Bronte illustrates well the traditional characteristics of these traditional novels. In Boating for Beginners, Jeanette Winterson deconstructs this binary vision of life. Throughout her novel, the reader is not told about what is good and what is bad. Furthermore, there is no harmony between the character and society, that is, between Gloria and society. [...]

[...] How is the traditional notion of subject challenged in “Boating for Beginners (Jeanette Winterson)? Introduction Boating for Beginners as a challenge of the traditional notion of subject: the character of Gloria Intellectual and physical descriptions of Gloria The use of point of view II/ Gloria's development How has Gloria's self been constructed? Boating for Beginners as a bildungsroman Conclusion Introduction Boating for Beginners is the second novel published by Jeanette Winterson in 1985. It deals with the growing up of Gloria Munde, who seeks her way in the world. [...]

[...] She tries to change her physical appearance but fails. On the contrary, it strengthens her ugliness and she becomes bald: “Years of grimacing in the mirror and covering her face in a solution of bone meal had all been wasted. Her nose was snub, her jaw undistinguished, and she was short her recent experiments with ash-blond tint had left her threadbare Nevertheless, was moderately intelligent, but not very” and had a way with animals and she wanted to fall in love.” Dream and reality are blurred in Gloria's daily life. [...]