Fiona Kidman, Writer: a Feminist Critique of New Zealand Society
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Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. FIONA KIDMAN, WRITER: A FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF NEW ZEALAND SOCIETY A thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature at Massey University, Albany New Zealand Anna Elizabeth Leclercq 2012 i ABSTRACT Two perspectives are pervasive in Fiona Kidman’s writing: the reconstruction of historical female voices, through fictional narrative; the recording of contemporary female voices, through autobiographical commentary and through fictional characterisations. This thesis engages with examples of Kidman’s work which show Kidman’s literary project to be the shaping of a New Zealand Pakeha cultural identity from a feminist perspective. In other words, Kidman constructs a patriarchal plot in order to demonstrate and expose the historical and contemporary inequalities of women’s position within New Zealand society. Their fictionalisations are influenced significantly by relationship intimacy, but their intention lies deeper. For those who wish to explore below the emotional surface of Kidman’s stories, there lies a social metanarrative, a journey of discovery for the reader. Each characterisation is part of an arranged message which Kidman challenges us to decipher. Kidman’s constructed narrative is manipulative and manipulated; put together in order to explore and explain the workings of the female psyche under stress; how the female psyche responds to the pressures of living within a patriarchal society; those ways in which the female psyche acts and reacts when seeking to buck the prevailing system, and how the system responds to this. Although not apparent when read piecemeal, Kidman’s body of work has an identifiable sense of unity, amounting to a social critique of an epoch. Keywords Fiona Kidman, author; historical; feminist; metanarrative iii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my mother who introduced me to the joys of literature. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following people for their co-operation during the research for this thesis: Dame Fiona Kidman, Beryl Fletcher, Sharon Crosbie and Dr Anne Else. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Dr J Ross and Dr M Paul for their valued help and direction throughout the research and writing process. I would like to thank my husband, Peter Leclercq, for his patience and support during the two years it took me to complete the work v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ..................................................................................... iii Dedication .................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements .....................................................................v Table of contents ....................................................................... vi Literature review ...................................................................... ix Methodology ............................................................................. xii INTRODUCTION: ............................................................................17 The female voice .......................................................................18 Frankness ..................................................................................20 Kidman’s politics ......................................................................21 First published novel - A Breed of Women ............................24 Historical novels........................................................................24 Problems, grievances, ridicule and resilience ........................25 Feminism ...................................................................................28 CHAPTER 1: CLUB LITANY, THE ORANGE SCENTED TIDE AND OTHER PLAYS .........................................32 CHAPTER 2: A BREED OF WOMEN Introduction ..............................................................................41 Writing a first novel .................................................................42 Storyline.....................................................................................47 Geographical locations .............................................................49 Race ............................................................................................53 Harriet’s progress to freedom .................................................55 Breaking boundaries and fallout .............................................57 Launch of A Breed of Women .................................................64 Conclusion .................................................................................65 vi CHAPTER 3: THE CAPTIVE WIFE The intervening years ...............................................................66 Introduction ..............................................................................71 History .......................................................................................72 Researching the protagonists and The Rocks, Sydney – historical ..............................................................................82 The fictionalised story ..............................................................89 Interpretation ............................................................................93 Adeline (Adie) Malcolm - fictional ..........................................96 Giving women a voice .............................................................100 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS .....................................................102 ABBREVIATIONS ..........................................................................104 APPENDICES ..................................................................................105 Appendix A - Permission from Fiona Kidman to be the subject of this thesis Email 1.12.2011 ...........106 Appendix B - Interview with Fiona Kidman 12.03.2011 ....107 Appendix C - Blanket permission from Fiona Kidman Letter 20.05.2012 ............................................135 Appendix D - Permission to approach Turnbull re Club Litany Email 20.8.2011 ....................136 Appendix E - Permission to quote emails from Sharon Crosbie Email 26.5.2012...................136 Appendix F - Permission to acquire Club Litany rejection letter from Turnbull ......................137 Appendix G - Letter of rejection from Whitcombe & Tombs Limited 12.03.1969. ........................138 Appendix H- Permission from Anne Else Email 03.04.2011 ............................................140 vii WORKS CITED...............................................................................141 viii LITERATURE REVIEW Whether or not Fiona Kidman would wish to be categorised as a feminist is an argument pervasive throughout Kidman’s three autobiographies, Palm Prints (1994), At the End of Darwin Road (2008), and Beside the Dark Pool (2009), all of which were constant sources of information during my research. Yet it has been assumed by many that she has been a feminist all her adult life, and, for the most part, in book reviews, newspaper articles and blogs she is written up as such. However, when Kidman has been asked, and sometimes forced in defence of her family, to define her brand of feminism she finds this difficult as she becomes troubled at “being asked to put belief into boxes” (Kidman, “Darwin Road” 206). Nevertheless, she maintains that her views have been consistently supportive of the Women’s Movement. Kidman revisits this statement by maintaining that when she does explain her own basic philosophy of feminism, “most people nod their heads and agree that this argument is about human rights, rather than pitting men and women against each other” (Kidman, “Darwin Road” 206). This suggests that she may prefer to be defined by the broader definition of human rights advocate. Certainly her active involvement in the civil disobedience emanating from the 1981 Springbok Rugby tour, for example, supports this. If Kidman prefers the latter term - even though evidence suggests the seed bed of her philosophy was planted by the Women’s Movement - does this mean that her novels reflect this wider definition? I believe not because her literary thrust, in my view, targets specifically women’s issues. That is to say, although Kidman might have progressed beyond the strictures of feminism in her private life, her novels, and particularly the novels I am dealing with in this thesis, purposefully reflect a feminist critique of New Zealand society. This thesis supports its argument by use of a multi-faceted approach. Although much information was sourced from texts that Fiona Kidman wrote and from the texts of other writers, part of my methodology was to seek a wider context by drawing on oral sources such as a face to face interview with Kidman herself, and extensive personal communications with Kidman over a long period of time. I also contacted a number of her friends and colleagues as well as other critics and writers, on the basis that the accumulated text is best understood within this wider context. ix To explain this approach further, these resources were both primary and secondary. Primary resources consisted of semi-structured interviews and personal communications via telephone and email. Secondary resources consisted of published articles, interviews and books by and about Kidman, plays and short stories written