Abstract Book of the 4th International Conference on LGBT Studies
Year: 2025
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More Sins Were Committed than Anticipated: Analysing the Threat of Religious Zealotry in Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985)
Dr. Matthys Johannes Uys, Prof. Salomé Romylos
ABSTRACT:
Religion and ingrained opinions about sexual orientations and gender identities influence the views and beliefs of many queer- and non-queer individuals, causing negative experiences and challenges to arise for queer individuals who live in religiously zealous contexts. Consequently, religious zealots do not realise that through their teachings, lasting harm (instead of support) is created. This concern highlights the important need to address religious zealotry in educational settings by analysing queer-themed texts. Given this context, we aimed to show how Jeanette Winterson’s (1985) Oranges are not the Only Fruit creates awareness of queer characters in an overly religious context and how this queer-themed novel can be used as a valuable resource in the English language classroom. Though much research has been done on the novel, we argue that there is a research gap regarding analysing the additional number of sins committed by the lesbian characters. We followed a qualitative approach within a critical theoretical framework while the queer characters served as a queer literary element for the conceptual framework; the method of data generation was content analysis, which had a specific focus on sin. The main findings revealed that religious zealotry acted as a threat to the four lesbian characters’ lives – specifically regarding religious beliefs – since the extreme judgement caused the characters to commit more sins than anticipated. Thus, extreme dedication to governing, constituting, and disciplining a religion has damaging effects concerning identity, religion, and sin. This paper underscores the necessity of integrating queer-themed literature in the English language classroom, through actionable strategies, to foster critical thinking and empathy towards queer characters.
Keywords: English language classroom, lesbian characters, Oranges are not the Only Fruit, religious zealotry, critical theory