"Why should I not live the art I love?" : the liberating power of art in Jeanette Winterson's literary work

Abstract

This article examines Jeanette Winterson's work to illustrate how art can hold a transformative and therapeutic potential. It presents the argument that by stimulating imagination and conveying a sense of contingency, art functions as a counterforce to several potentially harmful aspects of contemporary society, such as the uncritical belief in science and technological progress, excessive consumption, and blind pursuit of profit, most of which result from prevailing egocentric attitudes. To explore the potential of art to foster opposing values and encourage the transcendence of the ego, the article analyses novels of Jeanette Winterson, all of which portray imaginative worlds challenging conventional patterns of thought and foregrounding alternative ways of perception. The article examines both the role that Winterson ascribes to art by addressing the issue in her texts, and how she herself fulfils the potential of art in the work she produces.