Jeanette WintersonThe Passion

Jeanette Winterson (1959 - )

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985); won the Whitbread Award for a First Novel in 1985.

Adopted child, religious family By the age of 16 she identified herself as a lesbian Most of her novels deal with the same issues: the

boundaries of the imagination and the body, emotions, the question of control, sexual identity, historical truth, etc.

Postmodern novel, historiographic metafiction Other novels: Sexing the Cherry (1989); Written on

the Body (1992); The Power Book (2000)

The Passion (1987) and other works

1. What is the function of Napoleon in the text? How is he portrayed? How does the main character relate to him? Why?

2. How is Venice portrayed? How is the body and the city connected? Analyse the quotation on page 68!

3. Compare Henry and Villanelle? Why does Henry end up in a madhouse? How does Villanelle survive?

4. Interpret the following tropes: gambling, balancing, zero winter, risk, drowning!

5. What is the role of writing in the novel? Why does Henri feel the need to write a diary at the end of the novel? Interpret the very last sentence of the novel! („I’m telling you stories. Trust me”).

Group questions

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night,

Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night,

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sightBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light

And you, my father, there on the sad height,Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.Do not go gentle into that good night,Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Villanelle; Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good NightDylan Thomas (1914-1953)