EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ARGUMENTATIVE TEXT Thesis: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is an example of postmodern novel

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYARGUMENTATIVE TEXTThesis
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is an
example of postmodern novel
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• Focus on the novel structural analysis
  map
• Notes arguments in favor of the thesis
• Product Argumentative text

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Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

• By Jeanette Winterson

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LITERARY GENRE Memoir

• focus on emotions, feelings
• unfold of the writers emotional life along her
  telling
• ? literature as finding place
• association of ideas, without respecting
  chronology
• pursuit of authenticity
• ? A Memoir is not an Autobiography!

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EXPECTATIONS FROM THE TITLE
Why? ? question ? start from a problem, doubt
Be/Could ? undefined subject ? question for
anyone Happy ? aim of all human-beings Normal ?
standardization, suppression of individualism,
acceptance The reader expects the
novel to be about choices and their implications
the influence of peoples opinion, the
pursuit of the aim, the meaning of the choice

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DEDICATION
To my three mothers C. Winterson ? adoptive
mother (upbrought Jeanette) R. Rendell ?
literary mother (helped Jeanette with the
re-discovery
of her past story) A. S. ?
biological mother (object of Jeanettes search)
Even if quite different from each other, they
were all fundamental figures for Jeanette
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TRIBUTES
Thanks to friends, editors, supporters, who
believed in Jeanette and supported her
STRUCTURE Fifteen chapters and a Coda
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STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE CHAPTERS

• TITLE how does it introduce the content of the
  paragraph?
• CONTENT how is each chapter linked to the
  previous one?
• c) CHARACTERIZATION Jeanette vs Mrs. Winterson

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FIRST CHAPTER The Wrong Crib Wrong idea of
mistake, inadequacy, issue ? introduction of the
main topic of the novel adoption and
life as an adopted child SECOND CHAPTER My
Advice To Anybody Is Get Born Advice to
Anybody literature as instrument for
everybody Get Born origin as fundamental part
of peoples story and identity
pursuing of happiness as objective for life
Development of the main topic introduced in the
previous paragraph THIRD CHAPTER In The
Beginning Was The World Quotation from the
Bible religious texts as basis of Jeanettes
education
and basis of Mrs. Wintersons thought Resumation
of the binomia happiness-life, trough the
comparison between Jeanette and her mother
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FOURTH CHAPTER The Trouble With A
Book Quotation from the chapter Mrs.
Wintersons and Jeanettes idea of
reading and literature
differences
between characters Development of the
content of the previous chapter function and
reading of books FIFTH CHAPTER At
Home Home centre of gravity, place of
order, reference point Jeanettes
discomfort at home ? Jeanettes discovery of an
alternative home books Another point
of view about books the emotional bond between
book and reader
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SIXTH CHAPTER Church Church second crucial
setting of Jeanettes life place of
help, hope ? it comforted Jeanette
hostile place (ex. exorcism) ? made her reflect
about
contradictions of love and
religion Description of another seminal place in
Jeanettes history SEVENTH CHAPTER
Accrington Description of the small town, its
inhabitants and shops Wider portrait of the
place in which Jeanette lived EIGTH CHAPTER
The Apocalypse Apocalypse reference to Mrs.
Wintersons belief about religion, meaning
of life and idea about death meatphor
for the discovery of
Jeanettes omosexuality,a crucial event in her
life Resumation of two topics religion and
sexuality
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NINETH CHAPTER English Literature A-Z Books as
messages in bottles, writers as friends, who
could support Jeanette in her diffficulties Furth
er explanation about Jeanettes conception of
literature TENTH CHAPTER This Is The Road
This is the road (quotation from the previous
chapter) Application and admission to Oxford and
reflection about the role of women in society
ELEVENTH CHAPTER Art and Lies Art double
reference to Jeanettes university career and to
her reflections about literature as
art-form Lies reference to biases by the
university tutor against Jeanette and
women and by Mrs Winterson against Vicky and
Jeanette Development of the previous chapter,
regarding life at University
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Intermission Reflection about life and art,
fighting against chronological time. Jeanettes
predilection for imagination and emotions, not
facts. Another point of view about Art TWELFTH
CHAPTER The Night Sea Voyage Night darkness ?
a great, dark secret is unvealed and it has got
repercussions on
Jeanettes life and mood Sea Voyage reference to
an episode of Jeanettes life, metaphor of an
important discovery (sheep ?
drawer, treasure ? certificate) THIRTEENTH
CHAPTER This Appointment Takes Place In The
Past Appointment multiple references love
affair with Susie, research about
adoption with root, last meeting with the
father and appointment with
her biological mother Consequences of the
discovery described in the previous chapter
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FOURTEENTH CHAPTER Strange Meeting Meeting
between Jeanette and her biological
mother Strange mix of multiple emotions felt by
Jeanette Description of the crucial appointment,
anticipated in the previous chapter FIFTEENTH
CHAPTER The Wound Wound mark, that has got
different meanings to differnt people.
Both Mrs Winterson, Jeanette and Anne were
wounded Jeanette reflects on her vojage trough
time and finally feels at home CODA Information
about the following meetings between Jeanette and
Ann, reflection about maternity and love,
Determination to face the future
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CHARACTERIZATION

• Jeanette Winterson
• She is the narrator as well as the protagonist
• The reader knows her trough her most private
  feelings , thoughts and trough the account of
  some meaningful episodes of her life
• The reader takes part in her sufference and
  troubles
• Mrs. Winterson
• The reader knows her trough Jeanettes
  description ? subjective portrait
• Information about her ideas, life-style and
  physical-appearance are provided, as well as
  numerous quotations she liked
• The attitude of the reader towards her is
  changable on one side he feels compassion, on
  the other side he criticizes her because of her
  eccessive hardness

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MAP
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• NOTES ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR
• Postmodern novels
• Open structure no chain of causation between
  chapters
• ? conjectures by the
  reader
• resumption of the
  same theme/concept/idea in different
  chapters
• 2. Quotations
• 3. Absence of absolute truths
• 4. Mixture of topics, registers, languages
• Memoir
• 1. association of ideas, without respecting
  chronology
• 2. focus on emotions, feelings
• 3. unfold and sharing of ideas with the reader
• ? chance to fill the gaps in the past

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ARGUMENTATIVE TEXT
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a
memoir by Jeanette Winterson, published in 2011.
Since it is a memoir, the reader expects the
writer to look at her past and bring it back to
life in the light of her present, using the
device of the first person narrator. To tell the
truth, the speaking voice retraces the seminal
events of her life (causes and steps of adoption,
discovery of her homosexuality, pull-out of her
parents home, registration at Oxford University,
search and meeting of her biological mother)
adding her reflections, emotions and regrets
about the matter of reflection. The first thing
the reader notes is, facts are not told following
a chronological but a mental order (it is one of
the main differences between memoir and
autobiography) there is no chain of causation
between chapters on the contrary the reader is
asked to find connections between sections, even
if they are not in a row. It seems as if each
reader was asked to path his own way inside the
text it follows that there are so many possible
paths and connections as the readers (my personal
analysis of the novel is synthetized in the map).
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The peculiarity is typical of postmodern novels
in which, according to Feyerabends famous
quotation, the only absolute truth is there are
no absolute truths. Each interpretative
hypothesis of the text has got the same value and
none of them is absolutely TRUE. The writer
herself, in the coda of the memoir affirms I
had to know the story of my beginnings but I have
to accept that this is a version too. It is a
true story but it is still a version, that is,
every time you remember, you look at the past
from the current perspective (a subjective,
many-sided, dynamic perspective) and you always
got different feelings and versions.
Since there is no truth, no objectivity, the
writer focuses her attention on emotions,
appealing to subjectivity, involving the reader
and making up an intimate, silent dialogue with
him.
Each word, each reflection, may mean or evocate
something different in the readers mindThis is
memoir and this is postmodernism!
An infinitive range of interpretations and
approaches to life.
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The theme is the essence of the whole memoir,
because Jeanettes reflection (and, as a
consequence, her memoir) starts with her desire
of pursuing happiness, according to her love for
life, even if it is difficult. Each chapter is
an argument in favor of Jeanettes vision of the
world her conception of Literature (ch. 4, 7,
9, 11) , Home (ch. 2, 5, 15), Identity (ch. 1, 2,
12), Life (ch. 4, 13, 14, 15), her interest in
the contradictions of the world (love, religion,
history, society ch.2,6, 10,11) and last but not
least, the contrast between her world and Mrs.
Wintersons one (ch. 1, 2, 8). As you can see,
there are some key words that often figure in the
lines wound, loss, love, happiness, trouble,
sinn. It seems as if they formed an oxymoron but
it fits with the complexity of life and it is
another typical aspect of postmodernism.
Furthermore, the memoir is full with different
kinds of quotations biblical (from the
Apocalypse), literary (from Oranges Is Not The
Only Fruit, The Condition of the English Working
Class by Engels, To his Coy Mistress by Marvell,
The Awful Rowing Toward God by Anne Sexton) or
personal (Mrs. Wintersons The Devil led us to
the wrong crib, Ask not for whom the bell
tolls and She is a fault to heaven, a fault
against the dead and a fault to nature).
Quotations are typical of postmodernism as well
as the mixture of different registers and
languages (from the slang and the language of the
working class to the literary references), since
they try to express the complexity of the world,
that is, quoting Jeanettes words in chapter one,
unfair, unjust, unknowable, out of control.
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The writer herself confesses, When we tell a
story it is a version, but never the final one
we offer the silence as much as the story and
perhaps we hope that the silences will be heard
by someone else, and the story can continue.
There is no demand to preserve a truth as it
happens in the traditional novel rather the
objective of the writer is to reach and involve
as many people as possible, while trying to dull
her pain and pursue happiness, since as long as
I had words, images and stories for who I could
be and how I could feel, then I wasnt lost.
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CREDITSDesirèe MoscaVA