Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Jeanette Winterson
Standard Name: Winterson, Jeanette
Birth Name: Jeanette Winterson
JW
, writing in the late twentieth and the twenty-first centuries, has been acclaimed by some critics and savaged by others for her provocative and outspoken novels, in which she uncompromisingly confronts cultural notions of gender identity, sexuality, and religion. She attempts to change the world through her writing in the manner of but in place of political activism. Her work is widely studied and celebrated by feminist and lesbian readers and critics. Characteristically, she blends many genres: fable, fairytale, fantasy, history, philosophy, lesbian writing, science fiction, magic realism, and scientific studies. She is fond of stories in which the characters are on a journey together.
The Tide Knot was shortlisted for the Smarties Prize (awarded on the basis...
Literary responses
Edith Sitwell
This collection met with immediate critical acclaim. ES
was hailed as a leading poet of her generation.
Greene, Richard. Proposal: Edith Sitwell: A Life.
12
Novelist Jeanette Winterson
has recently called Still Falls the Raintremendous.
Winterson, Jeanette. “Not a mother to Marilyn”. Times, p. 39.
39
Literary responses
Ephelia
Mulvihill's website at http://marauder.millersville.edu/~resound/ephelia/ offers a great deal of information including identifications, put forward with greater or lesser degrees of certainty, of twenty-three historical personages named in Female Poems on Several Occasions, together with...
Hill, Rosemary. “No False Modesty”. London Review of Books, Vol.
33
, No. 20, pp. 25-6.
26
The poets of the Movement were famously dismissive of ES
. Al Alvarez
published a notorious and...
Literary responses
Maggie Gee
The cover of the paperback edition quotes Anita Brookner
in The Spectator saying I read it twice, and it was even better the second time, and Jeanette Winterson
in the Sunday Times saying it was...
Literary responses
Jackie Kay
Jeanette Winterson
, picking her best books of 2010, called this a lovely book, thoughtful and high-spirited, registering loss and love alike.
Winterson, Jeanette. “Cut Out and Keep”. Guardian Weekly, pp. 52-4.
54
Literary responses
Sara Maitland
This book was warmly welcomed in The Guardian by Kathleen Jamie
, who found it both unique and timely, written with great skill, judgment and good humour.
Jamie, Kathleen. “Noises off”. The Guardian.
Jeanette Winterson
picked it as a favourite read...
Literary responses
Grace Nichols
GN
's publishers quote glowing opinions about her work. Gwendolyn Brooks
has praised her rich music, an easy lyricism . . . also grit, and earthy honesty, a willingness to be vulnerable and clean,Jeanette Winterson
Literary responses
Ruth Padel
Linda France
, reviewing this book for Mslexia, called it intimate, animated, and inviting.
France, Linda. “One of a Kind”. Mslexia, No. 26, p. 53.
53
For Jeanette Winterson
it was sexy, strong, rhythmic, passionate, fully alive.
Crown, Sarah. “A life in poetry: Ruth Padel”. The Guardian.
Her election was marred by unpleasantness. Another of the three short-listed candidates, Caribbean poet Derek Walcott
, withdrew from the competition after a letter-writing campaign brought to the attention of potential voters the fact that...
Literary responses
Djuna Barnes
DB
wrote bitterly about Nightwood's literary reputation: There is not a person in the literary world who has not heard of, read and stolen some from Nightwood . . . [but] not more than...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Shelley
The year 2018, bicentenary of Frankenstein, was marked by publications and conferences honouring MS
. A bio-pic, Mary Shelley, starring Elle Fanning
, was released in July, having been seen at festivals since...
Intertextuality and Influence
Sappho
Margaret Reynolds
in The Sappho Companion, 2001, sweeps with a broad net translations, portraits, ballets, operas, poems, plays, novels, songs and treatises.
Gubar, Susan. “Multiple personality”. Women’s Review of Books, Vol.
xviii
, No. 12, pp. 13-14.
13
She too ends on the potential of Sappho as lesbian foremother...
Intertextuality and Influence
Zoë Fairbairns
People she thanks for helping (for instance, in interviews) with the research for this book include Rosie Boycott
, Sara Maitland
, Jeanette Winterson
, and her own parents. Part of the novel grew from...
Intertextuality and Influence
Ali Smith
In Perfect, a guest and hotal reviewer, Penny, is assailed with misperceptions and lack of recognition. After helping a mysterious young woman (who turns out to be Sara's sister, Clare) to pry the cover...
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Winterson, Jeanette. The Passion. Bloomsbury, 1987.
Winterson, Jeanette. The PowerBook. Jonathan Cape, 2000.
Winterson, Jeanette. The Stone Gods. Penguin, 2007.
Winterson, Jeanette. The World and Other Places. Jonathan Cape, 1998.
Winterson, Jeanette. “When all the ladies loved Paris”. Times.
Winterson, Jeanette. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. Jonathan Cape, 2011.
Winterson, Jeanette. Written on the Body. Cape, 1992.