This document summarizes key elements in several works of fiction including their themes, symbols, and narrative structures. It discusses Jeanette Winterson's metafictional works and their use of intertextuality, references William Wordsworth's poem, and analyzes Laura Esquivel's Goblin Market in terms of its themes of sisterhood and the lure of the forbidden. It also examines common motifs in Teresa of Avila's Bildungsroman and the works of Ruth and Percival involving quests, exile, and the tension between social belonging and a higher calling.

1. There is no autobiography Only art and lies

5. The matter that detains us now may seem, To many, neither dignified enough Nor arduous, yet will not be scorned by them, Who, looking inward, have observed the ties That bind the perishable hours of life Each to the other, & the curious props By which the world of memory and thought Exists & is sustained. William Wordsworth, “The Prelude” VII 458-66