Her memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? returns to many of the same events of her semi-autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, suggesting that any attempt at writing the authoritative version of one’s life story is always partial or fractured. Foucauldian archaeology, the study of discourse as a system of references rather than a thematic unity, provides an appropriate toolkit in studying Winterson’s discursive method. This thesis argues that Winterson’s reference and repetition are evidence of a poststructuralist project: she reconceives the unities of autobiography, history, and identity as networks of relations. Jeanette Winterson’s infamous use of intertextuality and self-quotation, often dismissed as arrogance, compels her readers to locate her works within an interconnected cycle.
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