Worth of Fairy Tales in Jeanette Wintersons quot;the...

When saying that there are certain folk or fairy tales about herself, Jeanette Winterson could not be more right, because there are indeed several myths surrounding her person. For many people Wintersons sexuality is the golden key to her public persona. Although she correctly states that `[she is] a writer who happens to like women, [and] not a lesbian who happens to write most critics are only too willing to interpret her writing in an autobiographical way and restrict her to the literary persona of a lesbian writer only. However, this whole obsession about her sexuality is not the only myth surrounding her. Furthermore, critical opinion likes to describe her as a novelist who feels the constant need to defend her writing against the†¦show more content†¦However, although the story of The Passion greatly relies on mythical elements, it is not correct to categorise this novel simply as a example of magic realism. When taking a closer look at her use of fairy tales, it is s oon clear that there is much more to The Passion than can be seen at first sight. Jeanette Winterson does not simply include fairy tale elements into her novel, but she makes the readers to see this book as a fairy tale itself. Contrary to the tendency of magic realism to `draw upon the energies of fable, folktale and myth while retaining a strong contemporary relevance, Winterson succeeds in spreading the fairy tale elements all over her novel, and thus leaves hardly space for a connection to a realistic story. Consequently, there simply is no realism in this book. Although the novel seems to be entirely historical (and thus rather realistic), when considering its setting during the time of Napoleon and its complete lack of connecting the plot to the present, there are hardly any elements to be found in the story. As a result, we can conclude that Jeanette Winterson is simply not interested in realism, but she wants to play with the convention of fairy tales. For her the represent ation of the story of this novel as a fairy tale is the most important thing. Therefore, the device of history is only used in order to fulfil that