Maneuvers in the Oeuvre: The problem of confession in the works of Foucault, Mishima and Winterson".

This thesis examines how writers negotiate the subject positions in which the public act of writing places them. The works of Michel Foucault, Yukio Mishima and Jeanette Winterson demonstrate how writers may foreground their resistance towards discursive penetration despite an ostensibly confessional stance, and establish their works as a site where deliberate incoherence, as much as much, can be produced. In Chapter 1, I argue that Foucault?s works demonstrate the importance of considering the self-representing subject in his works. Focusing on Mishima?s Confessions of a Mask and Winterson?s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, I argue in Chapter 2 that the identifiability of autobiographical elements in the works reinforces the paradox of authenticity and facade that the novels present. In Chapter 3, I argue that Mishima and Winterson further problematize authorial control through more complex works of self-revelation, highlighting both the necessity and inevitability of interpretation and the potential violence it entails.

Author dc:creator

• TAN YONG YEONG

• Michel Foucault, Yukio Mishima, Jeanette Winterson, Autobiography