The narration of the novel begins with the fact that Napoleon loved chickens in the same way as he loved Josephine (3), which reveals the multidimensionality of the word “passion”: that is, being very fond of something and having sexual feelings for somebody. Thus, at the very beginning of the novel, one of its main preoccupations is introduced: the ambiguity of the word “passion”, which is established as a fluid notion, constantly re-defined and located in various contexts. The first page of the book introduces one of the two main narrators (Henri) and the main themes of the novel, which are history versus storytelling (people from history described by a fictional character) and passion as a notion.
The first page of the novel also signifies that this text is going to deal with historical facts. The Passion is defined by critics as historiographic metafiction (a term coined by Linda Hutcheon). Susan Onega argues,
her third and fourth novels may be described as fantastic ‘historiographic metafictions’ in Linda Hutcheon’s terms (1988), for they combine fantasy with a self-conscious relish in the storytelling aspect of fiction and with an apparently paradoxical interest in re-writing history: the Puritan revolution that brought about the death of Charles I and Cromwell’s Commonwealth rule, in Sexing the Cherry, and Napoleon’s imperialist wars, in The Passion. (“The Passion: Jeanette Winterson’s Uncanny Mirror of Ink”)
According to Hatice Eşberk, “The Passion is one of the best examples of historiographic metafiction that underline the polyphonic structure lying beneath systems of meaning” (“History Rewritten in a Postmodern Novel: Opposed Views on History in Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion”). Eşberk highlights the importance of the beginning of the novel and its implications for historiographic metafiction. The fact that Napoleon’s passion is mentioned first indicates the subjective status of historical facts presented in the novel. The critic also quotes Henri’s words which comment on the relationship between language and re-telling history,
Nowadays people talk about the things he did as though they made sense. As to even his most disastrous mistakes were only the result of bad luck or hubris. It was a mess. Words like devastation, rape, slaughter, carnage, starvation are lock and key words to keep the pain at bay. Words about war that are easy on the eye. I’m telling you stories. Trust me. (5)
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The critic emphasizes “questionability of such a kind of reflection of history” and highlights Henri’s statement about storytelling and thus “fictionality in history” (270).
The critic also underlines Winterson’s technique of creating the narration which has characteristics of historiographic metafiction, namely introducing two narrative voices which describe the same historical period. Eşberk quotes Bengston, who claims that “Villanelle and Henri narrate very differently: Villanelle is poetry (hence her name) and in a sense Henri’s muse; Henri the writer who grapples with the natures of passion and obsession as illustrated in his progress from an immature worship of Napoleon to an adult, selfless love for Villanelle” (1999, 24). Arostegui notes that The Passion “reveals a polyphonic narrative structure that merges two apparently opposed narrative modes, the historical and the fantastic” (“History as Discourse in Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion: The Politics of Alterity”), and mentions Henri’s “poetic descriptions” when he talks about his childhood times. The critic quotes The Passion,
I was homesick from the start. I missed my mother. I missed the hill where the sun slants across the valley. I missed all the everyday things I had hated. In spring at home the dandelions streak the fields and the river runs idle again after months of rain. (6)
The novel includes a lot of his stories connected with his household and especially his mother and later his passions, either for Napoleon or Villanelle. As he admits, he writes a journal in order to be able to remind himself of his feelings, not facts.
As regards the fantastic, I elaborate on this matter in the section devoted to magical realism. Both Henri and Villanelle appear to represent the fantastic, since they both use magical elements in their storytelling. The boundary between the real and the supernatural is blurred in their voices and they seem to juggle with the literal and figurative.
When discussing magic realism in The Passion, it is crucial to mention Maria Edelson’s article titled “It May or May Not Be True. It Does Not Matter; (Magic) Realism and Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion”. It addresses the use of magic realism in this particular novel by Winterson which, as Maria Edelson states, is considered as “one of the most outstanding examples of magic realism in British fiction” (19). The critic counters the validity of this stereotypical view of Winterson’s work by proposing a more in-depth reading of this text, proving it to contain “indeterminate, ambiguous character which makes placing the book ←45 | 46→in a fixed literary category a rather difficult, if not futile task” (20). The author of the article highlights the fact that numerous supernatural (and thus magical realistic) elements appear to be simply stories told by various characters; these types of narration raise many doubts in their truthfulness, such as Patrick’s stories about goblins, mermaids, and his eye (21). The critic argues that Henri makes “a suggestion of disbelief” and is engaged in “skeptical observations” concerning Villanelle’s stories. The article also points out the fact that Henri is a good observer and his conclusion from listening to Villanelle’s stories is “I’m not like Villanelle, I don’t see hidden worlds in the palm of my hand” (P 55), and his admiration at her “knack of raising your spirits just by saying, ‘Look at that’, and that was always an ordinary treasure brought to life” (P 56). This quotation is vital since it emphasizes the fact that the boundary between the notion of magic realism and perceiving the ordinary in the extraordinary way seems to be fluid and one may even question magic realism in The Passion as such. Instead, the other term used is “an ordinary treasure” which bears some similarity to “magic realism” since “ordinary” seems to replace “realism” and “magic” is substituted by “treasure”. The term used by Henri seems to be more precise and more illustrative of Winterson’s writing; treasure indicates something of value, something precious and rare. It means something special but not necessarily magical (supernatural) which is also the case in The Passion’s narration. Defamiliarization, the “Look at that” effect, is highlighted; an effect involves bringing into existence hidden worlds that concern emotions as well as words, or discovering treasures in ordinary expressions.
Maria Edelson also mentions the functions of stories told by both Villanelle and Henri claiming Henri’s storytelling to be “a means of temporary escape from harsh reality and also a repository of his memories of past feelings” whereas Villanelle’s stories create “imaginative, poetic visions of her experiences” (26), which correspond with her poetic name. Regarding the poeticity of stories in The Passion, Maria Edelson also mentions other features which would definitely illustrate the relationship between poetry and prose. The basic function of the story in The Passion is based on giving the invisible and inexpressible a “shape in words”. In other words, it serves as a kind of “objective correlative” which shows strong connections of Winterson’s prose with T.S. Eliot (28).
The critic goes on to point out Winterson’s references to Eliot (“The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”, “The Hollow Men” and “Hamlet and His Problems”). Maria Edelson mentions Eliot’s poetry characterized by “the search for the rhythm of common speech and the transmuting of thought and