Modern British Fiction

Narrative collage

a technique in which a text is built from multiple fragmented narrative forms and voices, creating meaning through juxtaposition rather than linear continuity.

What are examples of multiple narrative forms?

diary entries, letters, myths, fairy tales, sermons, memories

What are key features of narrative collage?

Multiple narrative forms, shifts in voice or perspective, non-linear structure, genre mixing, and gaps and interruptions that the reader must actively interpret

What does narrative collage do?

• Challenges the idea of a single, stable truth

• Reflects fragmented identity and memory

• Highlights the constructed nature of narratives

• Encourages active reader participation

What was narrative collage used for? To

• Question truth and authenticity

• Represent fragmented identity

• Reflect social, cultural, and ideological plurality

• Resist dominant or “official” narratives

• Mimic the workings of memory and consciousness

How is narrative collage used in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

mixes autobiography, fairy tales, myths, and biblical parody to resist religious and sexual absolutism

How is narrative collage used in Bridget Jones Diary?

diary entries, lists, emails reflect fragmented modern identity and media saturation

How does writing with a perceived audience affect authenticity in memoir-style narratives?

• Encourages self-fashioning and performance

• Memory becomes selective and unreliable

• Reveals that “authenticity” is constructed, not transparent

How does autofiction provide space for social commentary in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit?

• Blends personal experience with fiction

• Critiques evangelical Christianity, patriarchy, and compulsory heterosexuality

• Uses myth to universalise individual experience

How is fragmentation achieved in modern British fiction?

• Non-linear chronological timeline

• Multiple narrators or perspectives

• Interruption by memories, documents, or fantasy

How is fragmentation achieved in Fingersmith?

• Split first-person narration

• Withheld and delayed information

• Repetition of events from different perspectives

How is fragmentation achieved in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit?

• Realist narrative interrupted by myths and fairy tales

• Non-linear structure shaped by memory

• Challenges single authoritative truth

How is fragmentation achieved in Bridget Jones’s Diary?

• Diary-entry structure

• Lists, resolutions, emails interrupt prose

• Repetitive, cyclical sense of time

How is fragmentation achieved in The Sea, The Sea?

• Memoir-style narration

• Digressions, repetitions, contradictions

• Unreliable retrospective voice

How is fragmentation achieved in The Wee Free Men?

• Shifts between realism and fantasy

• Disrupted linear time in fairy realm

• Narrative reflects psychological growth

How is sexuality portrayed in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit?

• Lesbian sexuality as natural

• Condemned by religious ideology

• Critique of heteronormativity

How is sexuality portrayed in Fingersmith?

• Lesbian sexuality as mutual

• Emotionally intimate

• Resistant to patriarchal contro

How is sexuality portrayed in The Sea, The Sea?

• Heterosexual desire as obsessive

• Possessive and ego-driven

• Lacks reciprocity

How is space and time used in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit?

• Domestic and church spaces are restrictive

• Space reflects ideological control

• Mythic time disrupts linear realism

How is space and time used in Fingersmith?

• Confined Victorian spaces enforce power and control

• Institutions limit female autonomy

• Time reveals hidden truths through narrative reversal

How is space and time used in The Sea, The Sea?

• Isolated seaside setting mirrors psychological enclosure

• Time loops through memory and obsession

• Past dominates the present

How is space and time used in The Wee Free Men?

• The Chalk and Fairyland function as moral spaces

• Time distortion marks psychological transition

• Movement across spaces signals growth

What does self-reflexivity look like in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit?

• Narrator comments on storytelling and truth

• Myth and autobiography are openly mixed

• Questions the possibility of a single true narrative

What does self-reflexivity look like in Fingersmith?

• Narrators control and manipulate what is told

• Events are re-narrated and reinterpreted

• Reveals storytelling as deceptive and constructed

What does self-reflexivity look like in Bridget Jones’s Diary?

• Lists and diary entries highlight self-monitoring

• Identity shown as performative

What does self-reflexivity look like in The Sea, The Sea?

• Conscious self-presentation for an implied reader

• Narrator reflects on his own writing process

• Revises and contradicts earlier accounts

• Exposes memoir as unreliable self-justification

What does self-reflexivity look like in The Wee Free Men?

• Awareness of stories, myths, and archetypes

• Characters reflect on belief and perception

• Narrative highlights learning how to think critically

Compare heterosexuality and homosexuality in Bridget Jones’s Diary and Oranges.

• Bridget Jones: heterosexuality as normative, comic, insecure

• Oranges: homosexuality as authentic but socially punished

Argument:
One normalises heterosexual anxiety; the other exposes heteronormative violence.

Compare The Sea, The Sea and The Wee Free Men in terms of Femininity

• The Sea, The Sea: femininity is idealised, objectified, and controlled

• Women exist primarily through male perception

• The Wee Free Men: femininity is practical, competent, and autonomous

• Female authority grounded in responsibility and care

Compare The Sea, The Sea and The Wee Free Men in terms of Masculinity

• The Sea, The Sea: masculinity is ego-driven and possessive

• Male authority linked to narcissism and control

• The Wee Free Men: masculinity is decentralised and cooperative

• Male figures support rather than dominate

Compare The Sea, The Sea and The Wee Free Men in terms of Morality

• The Sea, The Sea: morality distorted by self-justification

• Ethical failure masked as insight

• The Wee Free Men: morality based on care, duty, and action

• Ethical clarity emerges through responsibility

Compare Femininity in The Sea, The Sea and The Wee Free Men

The Sea, The Sea

• Femininity objectified and controlled
  Example: Hartley reduced to a nostalgic ideal rather than a person.

The Wee Free Men

• Femininity as competent and autonomous
  Example: Tiffany Aching assumes responsibility for her community.

Compare Masculinity in The Sea, The Sea and The Wee Free Men

The Sea, The Sea

• Masculinity as ego-driven and possessive
  Example: Charles kidnaps Hartley under the illusion of love.

The Wee Free Men

• Masculinity as cooperative and secondary
  Example: Male characters assist rather than dominate Tiffany.

Compare Morality in The Sea, The Sea and The Wee Free Men

The Sea, The Sea

• Morality distorted by self-justification
  Example: Charles frames obsession as moral insight.

The Wee Free Men

• Morality grounded in care and responsibility
  Example: Tiffany accepts the burden of protecting others.

Compare Subjectivity in The Sea, The Sea and The Wee Free Men

The Sea, The Sea

• Subjectivity as unreliable, ego-driven, and self-absorbed
  Example: Charles constantly revises events to favour himself.

The Wee Free Men

• Subjectivity developed through reflection
  Example: Tiffany learns to think critically (“First Sight and Second Thoughts”).

How are emotional landscapes used in Bridget Jones’s Diary

• Urban spaces mirror emotional anxiety
  Example: London social life intensifies insecurity and comparison.

• Repetitive environments reflect stagnation
  Example: Cycles of dating and self-criticism.

How are emotional landscapes used in Wee Free Men

• Physical landscapes externalise emotional growth
  Example: The Chalk represents stability and identity.

• Movement across spaces mirrors maturity
  Example: Tiffany’s journey into Fairyland marks emotional resilience.