Discuss how both the nature of desire and of guilt are intertwined with memory in Winterson’s Written on the Body and in Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending. In your discussion make close reference to the texts.
This essay deals with the work of the British postmodernist authors Jeanette Winterson and Julian Barnes and discusses how both the nature of desire and of guilt are intertwined with memory in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body (1992) and Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending (2011). Both novels are pieces of British contemporary prose in English that belong to different authors and social and literary contexts but which can be stated to share a distinct treatment of the nature of both desire and guilt – desire and guilt are intertwined with memory in both novels, as we will see below. Also, both novels belong to the literary tradition of postmodernism, which implies a pessimistic view attitude toward life, given by the fact that in both novels the narrator/protagonist experiences a sense of loss.
Jeanette Winterson is a British author, whose literary work is considered to belong to the literary stream of postmodernism. Her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985), is an autobiographical novel, whose title makes reference to the sexual orientation of the author, who is a lesbian. Her following books, including novels such as Written on the Body (1992) or her books for children, such as The Lion, Unicorn and Me (2009) and the collection of short stories The World and Other Places (1999), are also considered to have autobiographical echoes – Sexing the Cherry (1990), Written on the Body (1992), Art Objects (1996), The Powerbook (2001), Tanglewreck (2006) and The Gap of Time (2015). Winterson’s fourth novel, Written on the Body (1992), deals with the loss of love and the pain which that loss of love causes, as the author/narrator/protagonist explains in the introduction. In spite of being an autobiographical novel, the author tries to avoid the characterization of the narrator or protagonist as male or female or even as heterosexual or homosexual – the narrator/protagonist has indeed sexual intercourse with characters of both sexes until Louise, a woman of a Pre-Raphaelite beauty, makes her appearance in the novel. Louise is married to a man, so here is the ambiguity again, since we do not know whether Louise is a lesbian or not – she can be a lesbian who is married to a man, a heterosexual woman who lives a forbidden relationship with another woman, a bisexual woman… Actually, ambiguity can be said to be one of the characteristics of this autobiographical novel.
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Finally, the relationship between both women comes to an end for external reasons – Louise suffers from cancer and when her husband makes her lover choose between going on with the relationship or letting Louise go abroad to follow treatment for her illness, the protagonist chooses to let her go, that is to say, he or she chooses to sacrifice. Thus, the novel’s narrator becomes the hero/heroine of the story. Experimental as it is, in the sense that the novel plays with form and refuses a traditional narrative line, Written On The Body (1992) includes the reader as a player, as the author herself explains, since the reader has to work with the novel – the narrator has no name, is assigned no gender, is age unspecified, and highly unreliable until the moment when she or he chooses to sacrifice for love.
Julian Barnes is a British author whose work, as Winterson’s, is considered to belong to the literary movement of postmodernism. His first novel, Metroland (1980), which deals with the life of a young man who becomes an adult in the suburbs of London, that is, Metroland, can be considered to be a Bildungsroman. His following novels, including The Sense of an Ending (2011), also deal with personal accounts of knowledge through the experience of life – Before She Met Me (1982), Talking It Over (1991), Love, etc. (2000), The Sense of an Ending (2011) and The Only Story (2018).
Barnes’ eleventh novel, The Sense of an Ending (2011) -whose title is borrowed from a homonymous book of literary criticism by Frank Kermode and published in 1967- is narrated by a divorced and retired man named Tony Webster, the narrator, and protagonist, who recalls how he and his friends from school vowed to remain friends for life and also reflects on the paths that he and his friends have taken since then. This novel includes the suicide of two of the characters, which connects it with the pessimistic view of postmodernism. Also, the novel includes forbidden love (sex before marriage, adultery), which would also connect it with forbidden love (non-straight sex, adultery) in the novel by Winterson, Written On the Body (1992).
In the novels Written On The Body (1992), by Jeanette Winterson, and The Sense of an Ending (2011) by Julian Barnes, the nature of desire and guilt is forbidden love, which is the backbone of both stories – forbidden love (homosexuality, adultery, sex before marriage) is not only one of the themes of both novels but the origin of desire and guilt in the main characters of both stories. Thus, the nature of desire and of guilt are intertwined with memory in both novels, whose respective stories are supported by the memories and reflections of their main characters. Of course, memory betrays, and reflections are subjective. Consequently, we cannot trust these characters when they recall or make statements about how they feel about for instance guilt (for example, when Tony states that he does not feel guilty about his past). In these novels, the narration is characterized by the use of literary techniques such as ellipsis and flashbacks/flashforwards, which play an important role in both novels, since memory does not move in only one direction. As Gustar says in her article, in Written on the Body, the narrator uses the flashback to make us begin the story again “The end of the novel directs us back to the beginning, as the end is “where the story starts” (190). Thus, we are sent back to the opening sentence of the novel, which directly confronts us with the question: “Why is the measure of love loss?” The next few paragraphs, however, locate and contest both loss and love as constituted in and effects of Language” (2005). Not only this, memory in the bodies also play an important role, for instance, as Lindenmeyer says in her article “Both protagonists in Written on the Body have “Foucauldian” bodies inscribed by history. Louise’s body is marked by telltale scars […]”, here she is showing how bodies reflect the memories of life of the characters, in the case of Louise they can resemble bad experiences of life, but they can also show good things that happened to her.
Regarding how both desire and guilt are intertwined with memory, it is also remarkable the use of the narrative device of stream of consciousness (for instance, at the beginning of the novel by Winterson). This, related to memory “results in a language that collapses the distinction between past and present in favour of a constantly revised, idiosyncratic relationship with discourses” (Coghlan, 73). We are not told the name or gender of the narrator of the novel Written on the Body (1992). This narrator, who is unnamed and whose gender we do not know, lives several sex relationships, with both men and women, which always have an unhappy ending partly because the narrator feels attracted by married women (the theme of adultery). But one fine day, the narrator/protagonist character meets Louise. Nevertheless, at the end of the novel, the narrator/protagonist must choose between love and duty. As it has already been said, the narrator/protagonist has at the beginning of the novel, different love affairs, with people of both genders, although he/she prefers married women (the theme of forbidden love). Thus, this narrator/protagonist with an inclination for married women finally leaves a woman she is dating, Jacqueline, when she meets Louise, who is again a married woman but whom the narrator/protagonist considers to be his/her soulmate.
The character of Jacqueline is that of a kind woman and partner, with whom the narrator/protagonist has a smooth relationship after a difficult break-up (because his/her former then partner did not accept the break-up). Nevertheless, this woman named Jacqueline is not an interesting woman or at least the protagonist/narrator does not find her particularly interesting. Thus, when the narrator/protagonist meets Louise, he or she feels that Louise has every single quality that poor Jacqueline lacks. As it has already been mentioned above, Louise is a married woman, the kind of sex partner that the protagonist/narrator feels attracted to.
Notwithstanding, at first the narrator/protagonist is not sure whether to get involved again in a sex relationship with another married woman but finally cannot resist because, as we saw above, he or she feels that Louise is his/her soulmate and there is something very special about this woman, Louise. When the narrator/protagonist and Louise finally get sexually involved with each other, the narrator tries to be honest with Jacqueline, so he tells her about Louise. Surprisingly, Jacqueline, who used to be so kind, destroys the apartment they both share. Ignoring her anger, the narrator/protagonist can think only of Louise, who tries also to be honest with Elgin, her husband and so she tells him about the sex relationship she is having with another person. This character, Elgin, Louise’s husband, is a doctor – he is a cancer researcher indeed, which is important for the development of the story, as we will see. First, he is a cancer researcher who works a lot and who is often away from home, which favors his wife’s sexual unfaithfulness. Actually, the narrator/protagonist and Louise have their sex relationship inside the home that Louise and her husband share as a married couple until Louise decides that she wants a divorce. At this point, the narrator/protagonist and Louise live a period of joy which nevertheless will not last because Louise has leukemia, that is, cancer, as Elgin tells the narrator/protagonist, who had not been told about the sickness by Louise, who finally has to admit she is badly sick although she also pretends that has not any symptoms. We are told that Louise is not undergoing any treatment. When the narrator/protagonist asks Louise’s husband, Elgin, for advice, Elgin suggests that his wife Louise must be treated abroad. The protagonist/narrator has thus to make a choice between love and duty, as it has been pointed out above. He chooses to leave Louise without giving any explanation to her. Then, both lovers stay apart from one another over twelve months.
During that year, the protagonist/narrator moves to the countryside, where he/she will find a job in a pub. Whenever the protagonist/narrator has a spare moment, he or she reads scientific texts in an obsessive way, which is important also for the development of the novel, since the protagonist/narrator tries to find a way to understand better the body of his/her former lover. At this point of the novel, descriptions of Louise’s body are also coupled with, imagined, images of her body wasting away from the disease she suffers. Thus, the anatomy books that the narrator/protagonist reads, become also a way for the narrator/protagonist to make friends with the past as well as a way to understand what Louise is and what she means to him/her. After more than twelve months away from Louise, the narrator’s boss, Gail, tries to have a relationship with the protagonist/narrator. They both will share a bed at Gail’s home, but without having sex since Gail is too drunk for having sexual intercourse with the protagonist/narrator. After this failed sex affair, the protagonist/narrator tries to get in touch with Elgin, Louise’s husband, just to ask him how Louise is doing. Nevertheless, the narrator/protagonist cannot obtain much information. Thus, the narrator/protagonist tells Gail about Louise and about their failed love relationship. In explaining this, the narrator/protagonist becomes aware of the consequences of having left Louise without an explanation. One of the consequences had been that Louise could not decide for herself whether she wanted to put an end to the relationship or not. So, Gail suggests that the narrator/protagonist contact Louise in order to go back to her. Thus, the narrator/protagonist returns to London. Nevertheless, Louise cannot be found. The narrator/protagonist learns that Louise never went back to her husband, Elgin. Instead, she went through with the divorce. For several weeks, the narrator/protagonist lives in the London apartment that they used to share. There, the narrator/protagonist waits for Louise. Since she does not return, the protagonist/narrator comes back to the countryside. There, the protagonist/narrator finds Louise, waiting for him/her.
The novel The Sense of an Ending (2011), which is divided into two parts, is also narrated by the protagonist, Tony Webster, a retired man who lives on his own since he is a divorced man. Memory plays an important role on the writing, as Oró Piqueras says “By getting into the life narrative of Tony Webster who addresses us as if we were listening to him in the fact that memory is a double-edged weapon. It is the door towards our past and the construction of a logical life narrative but it is also the reminder that everything we did in the past and will do in the future is seasoned by feelings and emotions which give subjectivity to our memories and which require constant reconsideration and rewriting of who we are, whatever the age.” (94). The first part of the novel deals with the childhood of the protagonist/narrator, back in the 1960s. The narrator/protagonist, Tony, recalls his school years and his friends from school. One of them, Adrian, was the most intelligent of the four friends. An important memory from school years is that of another schoolmate, a boy, who committed suicide by hanging himself apparently after getting a girl pregnant. After the school years, Adrian goes to the University of Cambridge whereas Tony goes to the University of Bristol. At university, Tony dates Veronica and spends a weekend at her family home. Then, Tony breaks up with Veronica but they have sex with one another after breaking up. In his final year at university, Tony receives a letter from Adrian informing him that he and Veronica are going out. Tony writes a letter for him, telling Adrian that from his point of view his girlfriend had mental problems of some kind and that he must speak about it with Veronica’s mother. Afterward, Tony is told that Adrian has committed suicide.
The second part of the novel, at present, begins with the arrival of a lawyer’s letter informing Tony that Veronica’s mother has bequeathed him five hundred quit and two documents. Tony, thus, contacts Veronica. When he contacts her, he learns that Veronica has Adrian’s diary. Veronica will send Tony one page of the diary, the page that contains some revelations by Adrian. After this, Veronica meets Tony in London and gives him the letter he sent to Adrian when they were young. Next, Veronica and Tony go to see a group of mentally handicapped men. When Veronica points one of them to him, Tony just does not understand. Several weeks later, Tony comes back to this place and greets the man, whom he introduces himself by saying that he is a friend of Veronica’s, which leads to an upset response from the man. Then, Tony thinks that that man can be the son that Adrian and Veronica had together, but his care worker will reveal him that the man is actually the son of Veronica’s mother, Sarah, which makes him Veronica’s half-brother. The reader is left to presume that Adrian is the father and that the birth of this damaged son may be the reason for the suicide of his friend.
Both novels, Written on the Body (1992) and The Sense of an Ending (2011), deal with the sense of loss when life shows that nothing, including love or friendship, lasts forever and also imply criticism of society. Besides, both novels, although belonging to different social and literary contexts (gay fiction and straight fiction, respectively), are nevertheless literary works that share the literary tradition of postmodernism, which implies a shared pessimistic postmodernism vision of the world, that is, both novels can be stated to share a view characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism and also a general suspicion of reason. Another characteristic that both novels share is the existence of a narrator/protagonist that experiences forbidden love (sex before marriage, homosexual sex, adultery). Both novels also share the themes of sex and responsibility and also of forbidden love as the nature of desire and guilt. To conclude, it can be stated that the ambiguity of both novels shows the ambiguity of human relationships in our present-day world and also explores the human condition when it is brought face to face with the ultimate meaning of love and life.
Bibliography
- Barnes, J. (2011). The Sense of an Ending. London/New York: Jonathan Cape/Knopf.
- Coghlan, M. (2016). Reference and Repetition in Jeanette Winterson’s Novels. Ontario: Lakehead University.
- Gustar, J. (2005). The Body of Romance: Citation and Mourning in Written on the Body. Espacios del Cuerpo. 2, 25-41.
- Lindenmeyer, A. (1999). Postmodern Concepts of the Body in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body. Feminist Review, 63, 48-63.
- Oró Piqueras, M. (2014) “Memory Revisited in Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending”. Coolabah, 13, 87-95
- Winterson, J. (1992). Written on the Body. London: Vintage Books.
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