UNDOING LIFE WRITING: POSTMODERN BIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION IN WOOLF, BARNES, AND WINTERSON

Yıl 2026, Cilt: 27 Sayı: 50, 345 - 362, 31.01.2026

Henrieta Krupa

https://doi.org/10.21550/sosbilder.1743778

https://izlik.org/JA79WC58LH

Öz

This article examines how Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot, and Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? challenge the authority and ethics of traditional biography through postmodern biographic metafiction. Drawing on Linda Hutcheon’s historiographic metafiction and feminist and queer approaches to life writing, the study argues that these texts foreground narrative construction, epistemological uncertainty, and genre fluidity. Woolf satirizes biography through gender and temporal instability; Barnes fractures the biographical form to reveal the elusiveness of truth; Winterson fuses fiction and memoir to explore trauma and identity. Together, these works resist biographical transparency and recast life writing as a performative, interpretive, ethically charged act. By incorporating Winterson’s hybrid texts into the discussion, the article expands debates in feminist, queer, and postmodern literature, positioning these authors as central to the transformation of biography into a self-reflexive, experimental, and politically engaged literary practice.

Anahtar Kelimeler

biographic metafiction , life writing , postmodern narrative , feminist and queer theory , narrative ethics

Etik Beyan

The article has been prepared in accordance with research and publication ethics. This study does not require ethics committee approval.

Hayat Yazımını Sökmek: Woolf, Barnes ve Winterson’da Postmodern Biyografik Üstkurmaca

https://izlik.org/JA79WC58LH

Öz

Bu makale, Virginia Woolf’un Orlando, Julian Barnes’ın Flaubert’s Parrot ve Jeanette Winterson’ın Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit ile Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? adlı eserlerinin, postmodern biyografik üstkurmacaaracılığıyla geleneksel biyografinin otoritesini ve etik anlayışını nasıl sorguladığını incelemektedir. Linda Hutcheon’ın tarih yazımı üstkurmaca kuramı ile feminist ve queer yaşam yazımı yaklaşımlarına dayanan çalışma, bu metinlerin anlatı inşasını, epistemolojik belirsizliği ve türler arasındaki geçişkenliği ön plana çıkardığını savunur. Woolf, biyografi türünü cinsiyet ve zamanın akışkanlığıyla hicvederken; Barnes, biyografik yapıyı parçalayarak gerçeğin yakalanamazlığını gözler önüne serer; Winterson ise kurmaca ile anıyı harmanlayarak travma ve kimlik meselelerini irdeler. Bu eserler birlikte biyografinin şeffaflığına direnir ve yaşam yazımını performatif, yorumlayıcı ve etik açıdan yüklü bir edim olarak yeniden tanımlar. Winterson’ın hibrit metinlerini tartışmaya katarak, makale feminist, queer ve postmodern edebiyat alanındaki tartışmaları genişletir; bu yazarları biyografinin kendine göndermeli, deneysel ve politik olarak katılımcı bir edebi forma dönüşümünde merkezi figürler olarak konumlandırır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

biyografik üstkurmaca , hayat yazımı , postmodern anlatı , feminist ve queer kuram , anlatı etiği

Etik Beyan

Makale araştırma ve yayın etiğine uygun olarak hazırlanmıştır. Yapılan bu çalışma etik kurul izni gerektirmemektedir.

Kaynakça

• Barnes, J. (2009). Flaubert’s parrot. Vintage.
• Berlatsky, E. (2009). “Madame Bovary, c’est moi!”: Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot and Sexual “Perversion”. Twentieth Century Literature, 55(2), 175-208.
• Boswell, J. (2008). The life of Samuel Johnson. D. Womersley (Ed.), Penguin Classics.
• Brown, F. (2006). Flaubert: A biography. Little, Brown, and Company.
• Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.
• de Man, P. (1979). Autobiography as de-facement. Comparative Literature, 94(5), 919-930.
• Dillon, S. (2013). The palimpsest: Literature, criticism, theory. Bloomsbury.
• Freud, S. (2010). The interpretation of dreams. (Trans: J. Strachey), Basic Books.
• Gasiorek, A. (1995).Post-War British fiction: Realism and after. Edward Arnold.
• Hutcheon, L. (1988). A poetics of postmodernism: History, theory, fiction. Routledge.
• Lee, H. (2008). Virginia Woolf. Vintage.
• Lee, H. (2009). Biography: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
• Marcus, L. (1994). Auto/biographical discourses: Theory, criticism, practice. Manchester University Press.
• Plutarch. (1992). Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans. (Trans: J. Dryden), A. H. Clough (Ed.), Modern Library.
• Sanders, J. (2006). Adaptation and Appropriation. Routledge.
• Smith, S. & Watson, J. (2010).Reading autobiography: A guide for interpreting life narratives. University of Minnesota Press.
• Steegmuller, F. (1939). Flaubert and Madame Bovary: A double portrait. Viking Press.
• Strachey, L. (1971). Queen Victoria. Penguin Books.
• Strachey, L. (2009). Eminent Victorians. Oxford University Press.
• Waugh, P. (1984). Metafiction: The theory and practice of self-conscious fiction. Routledge.
• Winterson, J. (1987). Oranges are not the only fruit. Grove Press.
• Winterson, J. (2007). The stone gods. Hamish Hamilton.
• Winterson, J. (2011). Why be happy when you could be normal? Vintage Books.
• Winterson, J. (1992). Written on the body. Jonathan Cape.
• Woolf, V. (2003). Orlando: A biography. Wordsworth Classics.
• Woolf, V. (2011). The art of biography. In A. McNeillie, S. N. Clarke (Eds.), The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol. VI. (pp. 181-189), The Hogarth Press.
• Woolf, V. (2011). The new biography. In A. McNeillie, S. N. Clarke (Eds.), The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol. IV. (pp. 473-480), The Hogarth Press.