Returning to the gardenthe Garden of Eden and the subversion of metanarratives in Lewis Carroll, Salman Rushdie and Jeanette Winterson

Abstract

This thesis explores how each author uses the symbology of the Garden of Eden in order to critically expose metanarratives as illusions created by power structures with the purpose of exerting control. This study approaches the two conflicting main interpretations of the story of the Garden of Eden: a Gnostic, pre Roman Catholic Church, positive interpretation of the events as an enlightening transmission of knowledge by the sacred feminine figure of the woman and the snake, and the metanarrative created by the Roman Catholic Church that tells of a story of sin and punishment. This research reveals if the authors` critique is based on the creational metanarrative as the original sin or the Gnostic version. The implications are that if the point of departure is the metanarrative of the fall of man, although critical of metanarratives, they further assist in the naturalization of the metanarrative that promotes and justifies beliefs that they challenge.