Representations of Innocence and Experience in the Novels of Robert Drewe and Tim Winton Hervé Cantero This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia School of Social and Cultural Studies Discipline Group of English and Cultural Studies 2010 Abstract Traditionally associated with elements of the British literary canon such as William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience and John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the notions of innocence and experience are seldom encountered in Australian literature. This thesis seeks to demonstrate how these notions of innocence and experience are presented in Robert Drewe’s and Tim Winton’s fiction. After an examination of innocence and experience as perceived in the literary, philosophical and religious spheres in the first chapter, the geographical and sociocultural background for this thesis is described in detail in the second chapter: this section presents a summary of aspects of Australia’s and Western Australia’s histories of particular relevance to a study of the two authors’ works. The third chapter concentrates on Robert Drewe’s use of these two notions throughout his novels. The order of publication is eschewed in favour of a chronological axis designed around historically distinct subject matters. The author appears to prevent metaphysics from permeating his stories of men and women on a quest of their own, and he frequently juxtaposes points of view and narrative techniques in order to dig under the surface of unquestioned certainties. The fourth chapter of this thesis is a study of Tim Winton’s multilayered portrait of Western Australia’s land and people, with a fall from innocence to experience explored through the author’s specific spiritual sensibility. In his books, he frequently depicts characters on a tortuous path towards self-knowledge and acceptance, itineraries often leading to spiritual fulfillment. One common element to their personal approach to the notions of innocence and experience is the strong influence of the geographical setting of their fiction. Indeed, Drewe’s youth in Perth has had a lasting influence on his work, whether in his fiction (from The Savage Crows to Grace) or in his life-writing (The Shark Net: Memories and Murder). As for Tim Winton, he is seen as Western Australia’s foremost contemporary novelist – the Western state being the unique backdrop of his 2 books (except for The Riders), to the point of being seen almost as a recurrent living protagonist. The study of novels such as Drewe’s The Shark Net and Winton’s Cloudstreet focuses on issues of resilience, forgiveness and acceptance after growing up among life’s pitfalls and dangers. At the end of this historical perspective, it is also worth examining how Drewe and Winton tackle turn-of-the-millennium anxieties and post- modern bemusement in Grace and Dirt Music, two tales of escaping the burdens of civilizations, to return to the wild, the raw natural condition estranged from the conventional march from innocence to experience. Among other elements, this study encompasses Drewe’s and Winton’s efforts at dissecting myths and counter myths: what if the innocent Arcadia never existed? I will work on both authors’ treatment of past blemishes and scars (as presented in The Savage Crows, Shallows, and other works) sometimes hidden under layers of nostalgia. This study also shows how innocence and experience are involved in a regionally delineated cartography of problematic places, in which beaches, suburbs, deserts and remote islands are the constitutive elements of a geography of benign, humbling and cruel dealings with nature and man for the characters of Robert Drewe and Tim Winton. Finally, this thesis deals with other options brought forth by Drewe and Winton: experience as the logical corollary to lost innocence – two successive pages or chapters in the book of life; individual or collective guilt dealt with, and now part of a triangular interaction with innocence and experience, through an appeased reassessment of the past. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6 A NOTE ON QUOTATIONS 8 INTRODUCTION 9 I Chapter I - The Concepts of lnnocence and Experience Introduction 14 I.1. “Innocence” 14 I.2. “Experience” 24 I.3. The innocence / experience dichotomy in literary history - introduction 29 I.3.a William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. 31 I.3.b John Milton’s Paradise Lost. 34 I.3.c William Shakespeare. 39 I.3.d Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. 50 I.3.e William Wordsworth. 53 I.3.f Robert Frost. 60 I.3.g Albert Camus’ The Fall. 67 II. Chapter II - Innocence and Experience Down Under; Western Australia’s Specificities 71 Introduction II.1. Evolving visions of antipodean corruption and redemption 74 II.2. Pastoral visions of Australia 78 II.3. Poisoned idyll? – John Kinsella’s analysis and his pastoral poetry 87 II.4. A Short History of Western Australian Innocence and Experience 98 – Part 1 II.5. Native Australians facing this European dichotomy; and A Short 118 History of Western Australian Innocence and Experience – Part 2 4 III. Chapter III - Innocence and Experience in the Novels of Robert Drewe 127 Introduction: the author III.1. The Savage Crows and Our Sunshine 133 III.2. The Drowner and The Shark Net 156 III.3. Fortune and A Cry in the Jungle Bar 183 III.4 Conclusion: Grace. 206 IV Chapter IV - Innocence and Experience in the novels of Tim Winton 220 Introduction IV.1 Innocence 227 IV.2 The Fall 241 IV.3 Experience 252 IV.4 Redemption and grace 277 CONCLUSION 288 BIBLIOGRAPHY 302 5 Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people for assisting me in my research: My two supervisors for this cotutelle project: Winthrop Professor Dennis Haskell, from the Discipline Group of English and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia, for his unwavering guidance and encouragement; and Professor Anne Wicke, from the Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines at the Université de Rouen (France) for her constant support throughout this logistically complex endeavour. The academic and administrative officers working in all the departments involved in the setting-up and management of the cotutelle partnership between UWA and the Université de Rouen; with a special mention for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and its School of Social and Cultural Studies, plus the UWA Graduate Research School and its then-director Professor Robyn Owens, for their always warm and efficient attention to my various administrative needs. The following organisations for financially supporting key aspects of this research: The UWA Graduate Research School, for a Travel Award in 2008 allowing me to fly to Broome to have a taste of that distant corner of WA described by Robert Drewe and Tim Winton in some of their novels; The Australian Academy of Science, in particular Ms Nancy Pritchard, and the French Embassy in Canberra, for their joint cotutelle travel award funding one of my return trips between France and Australia. The Conseil Régional de Haute-Normandie (France) and its generous funding program for international doctorate research . The Laboratoire de recherche ERIAC and the Ecole Doctorale de l’Université de Rouen, for their joint doctorate scholarship. The friendly and helpful staff at the following documentary resource centres: The UWA Reid Library, and especially Ms Susana Melo de Howard and Ms Azra Tulic at the Scholars’ Centre; the UWA EDFAA Library. 6 The State Library of Western Australia, and its Local History research section, the Battye Library. The City of Perth Library and the Geraldton Public Library All the people (writers, members of publishing committees and administrative officers) involved in granting me early access to various resources before their final publication in Westerly, Indigo, and by UWA Press. My two families, the Canteros and the Robinsons, for their warmth and patience, especially through hard times for us all; all my friends in Europe and in Australia, for all the much-needed fun and logistical help (Shane and Laurence, and Anne and Thierry, thanks for taking care of the base camp!). A final and very special acknowledgement to my partner, Lisa Robinson, for all her insightful support and her love. 7 A note about quotations All quotations are given as they appear in the source text. Unusual or non- standard spellings, punctuations and grammatical constructions have therefore not been standardized. This especially applies to quotations of Robert Drewe’s and Tim Winton’s novels in chapters 3 and 4 of this study. In these specific cases, page references are given for editions used in the preparation of this thesis and these editions are fully referenced in the footnotes and the bibliography. 8 Introduction This thesis provides a study of the conceptual dichotomy that opposes innocence to experience in the novels of Robert Drewe and Tim Winton. The interplay between these two notions is a well-known motif superimposed on many processes of change which humans undergo passively, bring upon themselves or impose on the universe around them – whether one deals with religious images of purity and corruption, moral markers such as blamelessness and guilt, or aesthetic constructs such as infant perfection and wizened maturity. Because of the apparent familiarity of these concepts of innocence and experience, they need to be clearly delineated. The first chapter of this study starts with an examination of each of these concepts throughout their semantic evolution and their spiritual and philosophical histories. This initial exposition is then followed by a detailed treatment of the employment of the dichotomy of innocence and experience by a selection of notable playwrights, poets and novelists from the early Modern era to the twentieth century. This section on literary productions of Europe and of the New World provides a fuller understanding of the creative territory in which Drewe and Winton may work when they deal with this dichotomy in their works.