THE LESBIAN BILDUNGSROMAN: THE PROCESS OF SELF-DISCOVERY IN JEANETTE WINTERSON’S ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT (1985)

Debido a la proliferación de editoriales de carácter feminista, a finales de los años ochenta muchos colectivos de mujeres lograron finalmente visibilidad gracias a la literatura postmoderna. Autoras feministas y lesbianas como Jeanette Winterson utilizaron la escritura como un marco artístico donde exponer sus propios procesos de identificación e individualización al rebelarse contra la feminidad heterosexual y normativa impuesta por la sociedad. El objetivo de este artículo es ilustrar como la novela de Winterson Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) reelabora el concepto original de la novela de aprendizaje y desarrolla una perspectiva lésbica de la novela de formación.Palabras clave: lésbico, Bildungsroman, identidad, homosexual, autobiográfico, autodescubrimiento, Winterson, postmodernismo. The Lesbian Bildungsroman: The Process of Self-discovery in Jeanette Winteson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985)Abstract: Due to the proliferation of feminist publishing houses, such as Pandora Press or Virago, during the late eighties many oppressed female groups finally achieved visibility by means of postmodern literature. Female lesbian and feminist authors, like Jeanette Winterson, used their texts as an artistic framework in which they described their own processes of identification and individuation while rebelling against normative heterosexual femininity as imposed in Western societies. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how Winterson’s novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985) reworked the original genre of the “coming-out” novel and developed the concept and practice of the “lesbian Bildungsroman”.Keywords: lesbian, Bildungsroman, identity, homosexual, autobiographical, self-discovery, Winterson, postmodernism.