Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. English Dept.
Advisor(s)
Mary Ellis Gibson
Second Advisor
Katherine Stubbs
Abstract
This project asserts that the moment in which a girl leaves the trajectory of the expected in favor of the unknown in order to pursue her discovery of self is when her coming-of-age narrative becomes queer. This is demonstrated through Jane in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Jeanette in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Jane and Jeannette’s respective coming-of-age narratives–that is, them creating their fully embodied selves, the girl they believe and know themselves to be–happen off the expected life path in the liminal, in-between, undefined space of the queer oblique. There are moments in their narratives in which they must necessarily disorient themselves in order to grow. This project thus also asserts that queer depictions of girlhood are then inherently also depicting the forces of compulsory heterosexuality.
Keywords
coming of age, queer, literature, compulsory heterosexuality, fairy tales
Recommended Citation
Flanders, Emily G., "Prophets Instead of Priests: Diagonal Orientations & Coming-of-Age Queerness in Jane Eyre and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" (2025). Honors Theses. Paper 1526.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/1526
Included in
Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Queer Studies Commons, Women's Studies Commons