Change and Cultural Survival in the Poetry of Philip Larkin and Carol

Emperors of the Text: change and cultural survival in the poetry of Philip Larkin and Carol Ann Duffy. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Canterbury by Brenda Allen University of Canterbury 1999 To the memory of my husband, Ashley, of my parents, Amy and Jack, and of my sister, Yvonne. iii Contents Abstract IV Aclmowledgments VI Preface Vll Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Cata-tomes: Archive and Imperialism 7 Chapter 2: Book-World: Ruling the Pages 38 Chapter 3: Love Story 79 Part I: Larkin's Dangerous Liaisons Part II: Modem Love: Duffy Fires the Canon Chapter 4: Religio Medici: Faith, Hope and Charity 122 Chapter 5: Lands of Hope and Glory: Putting People in their Place 172 Chapter 6: War and Peace: Fighting the Good Fight 209 Conclusion 251 Bibliography 257 IV Abstract Philip Larkin and Carol Ann Duffy have been, and are, regarded as a step ahead, as the voices that aid other citizens in their struggle to delineate the nature of their concerns about their society and the changes that must be coped with, internalised and incorporated into daily life. Because they are living in times of change, Larkin and Duffy are forced to find new ways to preserve their cultural identity that are not predicated on traditions that are dying or being superseded. The most startling of these changes, however, also affects Britain at the national and international level and in this thesis I examine the writing (including archival material) and life ofthese poets to argue that their efforts to deal with change may be seen as mirroring the stance of their nation, since in a nation with an elected government there must be, at some level, approval for and participation in, the modus operandi of that government. That these practices are imperialistic can come as no surprise, but ideas and practices of imperialism have changed. Thus it is that the older of the poets, Philip Larkin, harks back to the time of British Imperial glory, and the younger, Carol Ann Duffy, maintains a watching and speaking brief based on humanistic values of egalitarianism. Larkin, although he purports to be liberal, especially in matters he regards as the merely conventional, fights against the very structures that could be helpful to him and prioritises the sustaining of a past that has no future except as memory and text. His refusal to conform to the social and canonical demands of his younger days, however, v ensures that he experiences ambivalence toward most of the structures he criticises as well as toward those he embraces. Nevertheless, his directionless rebellion paves the way for Carol Ann Duffy to move freely between the canonical and the vernacular, in terms of diction and subject matter. To this, DuffY has added her own determination to interrogate meaning, and to represent a culture that is changing by de constructing and reconstructing canonical form in a way that Larkin did not. The first two chapters of this thesis are about the importance of data and archive, especially the written word, to ideas of the British Empire, and Larkin's over-reliance on archive in his own life. The dysfunctional subjects of DuffY's poems, who display similar reliance on data and archive, are then discussed and related to her own, contrasting awareness ofthe difference between data and knowledge. The third chapter, in two parts, demonstrates that the imperialist practices of each poet are carried over into the world of personal relationships. Because of his more rigid attitudes, Larkin does not achieve transcendence in this sphere, but Duffy demonstrates that moments of rapture are possible. The last three chapters deal with the most prominent features of imperialism: religion, territory and war. The chapter on war, in particular, is based on archival material that Larkin wrote during or about war, that he saw fit to keep private until after his death; and the chapter also utilises Duffy's lesser-known early works. The conclusions of these chapters confirm those of the previous chapters. Vi Acknowledgments I would like to thank and acknowledge the assistance of a number of people: My supervisors, Dr Rob Jackaman and Dr James Acheson, gave me good advice, encouragement, and were generous with their time. Andrew Motion and Carol Ann Duffy, both busy people, found time to talk with me. My daughters, Emily and Rachael and my partner, R. Michael Peck, showed faith in me and endured uncomplainingly my pre-occupation with my work. My friends Ian Hall, Maureen Coulter, Heather McCann Dr Alma Smith, Paul Vincent and R. Michael Peck all assisted with proof-reading and provided me with stimulating discussion from time to time. When I went to Hull to research, I was kindly and well assisted by those at the Brynmor Jones Library, especially Brian Dyson and Rebecca Johnson. I would also like to thank the following institutions for assistance with funding, without which I could not have travelled to the Larkin archives or undertaken this thesis: The University of Canterbury (scholarship); the University of Canterbury English Department (travel grant); Claude MacCarthy Foundation (travel grant); the University of Canterbury Federation of University Women (travel grant), and the University of Canterbury Mature Student's Society (MATSOC), especially Jim Johnson. vii Preface New Zealanders have begun to interpret British art with a wide cultural view that takes into account their own post-colonial aspirations. But in order to develop a full awareness of what we have learned at the knee of Britannia, an understanding of imperialist power structures is necessary, as these underpin ideas and habits we must throw off in order to be secure in our separateness. This must surely be seminal to the ongoing well-being of a post-colonial identity, for unless we do so we may be susceptible to messages of imperialism that pervade art. This idea may seem obvious in terms of the increased status of art that is peculiarly ours and in terms of our developing bi-culturalism, but that it should be extended to our understanding of twentieth-century British poetry is less obvious, if only because it has been the custom to read poetry in the context of its own time and place without reference to the disjunction between that set of circumstances and those of the reader. Because of this, I have chosen to examine the work of two poets, each of whom has been acclaimed, while still relatively young, as the voice of the nation, to establish the terms of its imperialistic inheritance in order that I may read it with impunity. 1 Introduction Imperialism operates at the national and international levels, so that while nineteenth century explorers (on whom we may look back with an overview) are seen as imperialist, contemporary poets have not usually been interrogated as part of that now outdated political system. But it seems reasonable to assume that, in a country with an elected government, the power strategies of the nation will be mirrored in the social, cultural and inter-personal relationships of its citizens and that when the operation of the nation changes, citizens will have to make an effort to learn new ways of inter-relating and new ways of regarding themselves. One of the forums where this negotiation (or refusal to negotiate) can take place is in the art that purports to be predicated in the experience of the writer/citizen and those in the community who are observed by these writers.! But imperialism has changed. In the course of the twentieth century, Britain has gone from enjoying a position as the hub of the world's most powerful and respected Empire, to a rather less secure and much less powerful position as a sometimes unwilling and unappreciated member of the EEC. Even as the twentieth century draws to a close, there is resistance to metric measurements and the Eurodollar and this, in part, demonstrates that there are some Britons who still feel the need to cling to the signs of authority which have acted as tokens of imperial power throughout the Empire and the Commonwealth. For the British, then, these signs are invested with cultural capital that is not easily replaced and may represent stability in a time when life has been characterised by a range of changes. Not only do we now have a computer age, but the intellectual climate has changed; the growth 2 of multi-culturalism in Britain has changed the semantic content of the very term " British"; and the Scots and the Welsh now have more say in the running of their respective parts of Britain. In a sense, the periphery has come to the metropolis, destabilising that which made the nation 'great'. This means that not only must the former colonial populations seek decolonising strategies, but that the British themselves will have to go through a similar process of shifting their centre of identification onto that which is predictable and under their control. Some might say that Britain is no longer imperialistic. But the fact that imperialism has changed to accommodate modem life is demonstrated by America, an imperialistic nation that watches more than it occupies, but which steps in to enforce its values outside its own borders. This allows the privileging of the status quo of one nation over that of another, although it seems less exploitative, particularly as the overt aim is to preserve peace and engender tolerance. But for Britain, the borders have come to town, both through the shrinking of the Empire and through the increased multi-cultural nature of British society.

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