‘The magical, the perfect politics of nakedness’: Wandering Bare across Social and Narrative Boundaries in Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday
A pleasant rewriting of the fairy-tale, Mothering Sunday also gives Swift the opportunity to bind more closely than ever politics and aesthetics, as explicitly suggested by the key scene around which the whole novella stretches. The narrative presents itself as a carnivalesque feast, allowing the se...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2019-12-01
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| Series: | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/7572 |
| _version_ | 1831655028364935168 |
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| author | Pascale Tollance |
| author_facet | Pascale Tollance |
| author_sort | Pascale Tollance |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A pleasant rewriting of the fairy-tale, Mothering Sunday also gives Swift the opportunity to bind more closely than ever politics and aesthetics, as explicitly suggested by the key scene around which the whole novella stretches. The narrative presents itself as a carnivalesque feast, allowing the servant and writer-to-be to triumph at the expense of the master, fated to disappear. Beyond this inversion, the novella calls into question all forms of hierarchy, a redefinition inscribed in the narrative make-up of the text, in its use of tense and mode and in the constant play on language through which it grows. Writing becomes ‘the truer adventure’: the novella turns out to be a ‘romance’ in all possible meanings, presenting us with a fluid universe where learning to love and learning to write become one. Nakedness plays a key role in the text: at the same time as it redefines the relationship between the characters, it reflects the condition of the woman who is already committed to writing. As an orphan, Jane is like a white ‘sheet’ which, rather than being filled, must be preserved as a space of freedom and potentiality where everything is always both already written and yet to be written. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T16:39:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6086a5f7f74542d29293dce55ed9d146 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1168-4917 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T16:39:20Z |
| publishDate | 2019-12-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| spelling | doaj.art-6086a5f7f74542d29293dce55ed9d1462022-12-21T20:13:50ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeÉtudes Britanniques Contemporaines1168-49172019-12-0157‘The magical, the perfect politics of nakedness’: Wandering Bare across Social and Narrative Boundaries in Graham Swift’s Mothering SundayPascale TollanceA pleasant rewriting of the fairy-tale, Mothering Sunday also gives Swift the opportunity to bind more closely than ever politics and aesthetics, as explicitly suggested by the key scene around which the whole novella stretches. The narrative presents itself as a carnivalesque feast, allowing the servant and writer-to-be to triumph at the expense of the master, fated to disappear. Beyond this inversion, the novella calls into question all forms of hierarchy, a redefinition inscribed in the narrative make-up of the text, in its use of tense and mode and in the constant play on language through which it grows. Writing becomes ‘the truer adventure’: the novella turns out to be a ‘romance’ in all possible meanings, presenting us with a fluid universe where learning to love and learning to write become one. Nakedness plays a key role in the text: at the same time as it redefines the relationship between the characters, it reflects the condition of the woman who is already committed to writing. As an orphan, Jane is like a white ‘sheet’ which, rather than being filled, must be preserved as a space of freedom and potentiality where everything is always both already written and yet to be written.http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/7572Swift (Graham)Mothering Sundaycarnivalesquefairy talethe figure of the orphanmasters and servants |
| spellingShingle | Pascale Tollance ‘The magical, the perfect politics of nakedness’: Wandering Bare across Social and Narrative Boundaries in Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday Études Britanniques Contemporaines Swift (Graham) Mothering Sunday carnivalesque fairy tale the figure of the orphan masters and servants |
| title | ‘The magical, the perfect politics of nakedness’: Wandering Bare across Social and Narrative Boundaries in Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday |
| title_full | ‘The magical, the perfect politics of nakedness’: Wandering Bare across Social and Narrative Boundaries in Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday |
| title_fullStr | ‘The magical, the perfect politics of nakedness’: Wandering Bare across Social and Narrative Boundaries in Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘The magical, the perfect politics of nakedness’: Wandering Bare across Social and Narrative Boundaries in Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday |
| title_short | ‘The magical, the perfect politics of nakedness’: Wandering Bare across Social and Narrative Boundaries in Graham Swift’s Mothering Sunday |
| title_sort | the magical the perfect politics of nakedness wandering bare across social and narrative boundaries in graham swift s mothering sunday |
| topic | Swift (Graham) Mothering Sunday carnivalesque fairy tale the figure of the orphan masters and servants |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/7572 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pascaletollance themagicaltheperfectpoliticsofnakednesswanderingbareacrosssocialandnarrativeboundariesingrahamswiftsmotheringsunday |