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Aspects of Alterity in Three Novels by Patrick White

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Aspects of Alterity in Three Novels by Patrick White DEBORAH SCHEIDT 'ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD' Aspects of Alterity in Three Novels by Patrick White Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial à obtenção do grau de Mestre. Curso de Pós- Graduação em Letras/Literaturas de Língua Inglesa, Setor de Ciências Humanas, Letras e Artes, Universidade Federal do Paraná. Orientadora: Prof.a Dr.a Regina Maria Przybycien CURITIBA 1 997 PARECER Defesa de dissertação da Mestranda DÉBORAH SCHEIDT para obtenção do título de Mestre em Letras. Os abaixo assinados Heloisa Toller Gomes, Thomas Bonnici e Regina Maria Przybycien, argüiram, nesta data, a candidata, a qual apresentou a dissertação: "ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD: ASPECTS OF ALTERJTY IN THREE NOVELS BY PATRICK WHITE". Procedida a argüição segundo o protocolo aprovado pelo Colegiado do Curso, a Banca é de parecer que a candidata está apta ao título de Mestre em Letras, tendo merecido os conceitos abaixo: Banca Assinatura Conceito Heloisa Toller Gomes A Thomas Bonnici Regina Maria Przybycien Curitiba, 01 de dezembro de 1997. Prof.3 Odett n COORDENADORA To Caroline Larcombe - for her inspiring comments ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Reading - the cliché is old, but most true - involves making unforeseen voyages to places in other ways inaccessible. First of all I would like to express my gratitude to my teachers at UFPR for partaking their love of travelling and substantial knowledge, and mainly, for pointing to so many different routes. Thanks to Dr Sigrid Rénaux, for her ability to dive deeply into the text. To Dr Ana Camati, for unravelling the dazzling comings and goings in between texts. To Dr Brunilda Reichmann for flying as high as any Romantic poet. And of course, I couldn't thank enough my tutor - Dr Regina Przybycien - for being ready to wander along newly-opened pathways, for her wisdom and sensitivity, and for the right word in the right moment. Also, I wouldn't ¡hamacóme to this point hadn't I, in the long run, counted with the positive attitude of my father Otoniel, mother Bárbara and grandmother Margarida, who have always supported me no matter the direction I have chosen to take. But this work has also literally taken me to distant places. Thanks to all those Australian families (the Larcombe-Solomons, the Macalister-Knights, the Courtneys, the Normyles...) - especially their children - for having received me with genuine Aussie hospitality and friendliness and made the adventure of being the Brazilian Other less disturbing. I am much indebted to Nicholas Pounder for supplying me with loads of books (as well as for the unique experience of trading them for old saucepans). I couldn't possibly fail to mention the Morleys' warm welcome in the peak of English winter. Back home, many thanks to all my friends - Alessandra, Ana Paula, Flô, Gustavo, Ivo, Jô, Lu, Mel, Silvana, Paulo, Priscila, Regina, Zhé... and that includes the ones Far Away So Close Andrea, Cândida, Dani, Fernando, Marcos - for the endless disagreements on films, food, the concept of parody, the function of literature, women's lib, genetic control, football, religion & politics - in spite of which we have remained friends. My thanks, as well, to Faridi for helping me accept the ambiguities, to Eric and Santi Genochio for revising the English text and, finally, to CNPq, whose financial aid was invaluable in the realisation of this work. ii CONTENTS ABSTRACT iv RESUMO V INTRODUCTION - Discovering Patrick White 1 CHAPTER ONE - Australia: An'Other' Literature 7 CHAPTER TWO - Patrick White: A Crotchety Old Man 38 CHAPTER THREE - The Aunt's Story: The Alterity of the Writing 54 CHAPTER FOUR - Riders in the Chariot: The Other as Hero 80 CHAPTER FIVE - A Fringe of Leaves: Stages of Alterity 114 CONCLUSION - Defying the Dingoes 139 NOTES ON EPIGRAPHS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 142 BIBLIOGRAPHY 144 iii ABSTRACT In a first moment this M. A. thesis probes into some contingencies of the Australian history which have been decisive to the emergence of its national identity: the European bewilderment at the geographical features of the Australian continent; the difficult encounter with its native peoples and the settlement of the penal colony. The literary manifestations springing from this context are related to the stages of post- colonial literatures as they have been termed and defined by the theorists of post- coloniality.Bill Ashcroft, Helen Tiffin and Gareth Griffiths: 1. total compliance with the centre of the empire; 2. 'abrogation' (or denial) and 3. 'appropriation.' Patrick White (1912-1990) is then presented as one Australian author of white settler descent who appropriates the discourse of the centre and the restrictive characteristics of his homeland to create both a personal reputation and a work extremely imbedded in alterity. Different aspects of his treatment of alterity are shown in three of his novels. The Aunt's Story (1948) reveals the alterity of the protagonist realised as effectively through narrative technique as through plot. With four outcast 'heroes', Riders in the Chariot (1961) is a satirical portrayal of Australian suburban conservative forces in their attempt to massacre all difference. A Fringe of Leaves (1977) allegorises the moment of the European encounter with the Australian land, placing its heroine in succeeding positions as the Other. In that way alterity is posited as an element that pervades White's work, his personal life and the history of his country. iv RESUMO Num primeiro momento este trabalho investiga algumas circunstâncias da história da Austrália que tiveram um papel decisivo na emergência de uma identidade nacional: o assombro europeu diante das particularidades geográficas do continente australiano; o difícil encontro com os povos nativos e o estabelecimento da colônia penal. As manifestações literárias decorrentes desse contexto são relacionadas aos estágios das literaturas pós-coloniais de acordo com a terminologia e definições empregadas pelos teóricos^da pós-colònialidadé BilPÄshcroft, Helen Tiffin e Gareth Griffiths: 1. cumplicidade total com o centro do império; 2. 'abrogação' (ou negação) e 3. 'apropriação'. Em seguida Patrick White (1912-1990) é apresentado como um autor australiano de descendência britânica que apropria o discurso do centro e as características restritivas da terra australiana para criar uma reputação pessoal e uma obra profundamente enredadas na alteridade. Aspectos diversos de seu tratamento do tema são estudados em três de seus romances. The Aunt's Story (1948) revela a alteridade da protagonista tanto através do enredo como da própria técnica narrativa. Com quatro 'heróis' marginalizados, Riders in the Chariot (1961) é um retrato satírico de forças suburbanas conservadoras na sua tentativa de massacrar o diferente. A Fringe of Leaves (1977) alegoriza o momento do encontro entre o europeu e a terra australiana, colocando a protagonista em sucessivas posições de alteridade. Procura-se mostrar, assim, a alteridade como elemento que permeia a obra de White, sua vida pessoal e a história de seu país. 1 Introduction Discovering Patrick White The future [...] will lie with people who can think and act with informed grace across ethnic, cultural, linguistic lines. And the first step in becoming such a person lies in acknowledging that we are not one big world familyj or ever likely to be: that the differences between races, nations, cultures and their various histories are at least as profound and durable as their similarities; that these differences are not divagations from a European norm, but structures eminently worth knowing about for their own sake. In the world that is coming, if you can't navigate difference, you've had it. Robert Hughes, Multi-Culti and Its Discontents', 1993 ¡ During his life, the Australian writer Patrick White, born in 1912, published twelve novels, three collections of short fiction, besides several plays, poems, articles and speeches. The letters he wrote to friends and publishers also amounted to a bulky volume. Not only was he an extremely prolific author, but on his death, in 1990, he had, like no one before, managed to attract international attention to the literature of his country. The existing volume of criticism on White is proportional to his production. AUSTLIT, the Australian Literary database, has over 1,000 records pertaining to Patrick White by authors of assorted nationalities. Those include book-length studies, articles, essays, monographs, critical reviews, dissertations and conference proceedings, as well as a massive biography and his collected letters. Patrick White is one of the authors from nations affected by imperialism who, through strategies that have been called 'writing back', has been helping define new literary parameters. Three quarters of the world, today, has been irreversibly affected by imperialism and this state of things has brought the literatures from former European colonies into the limelight. It is therefore a matter of surprise and concern that Patrick White should be still so little known in Brazil. 2 One of the reasons that might be contributing to this lack of recognition with the wider public in Brazil is that, as far as I know, only three of White's novels have been translated and published here up to now (Voss, The Tree of Man, and The Aunt's Story). In addition to that poor representation, they are no longer commercially available. In what concerns Brazilian scholars, a possible explanation for not having yet 'discovered' Patrick White might be the fact that in this country a more far-reaching interest in post-colonial studies is still a very recent - but flourishing - tendency. We have, not long ago, seen the first issue of a new literary journal, Gragoatá, published by the Universidade Federal Fluminense, being dedicated exclusively to post- colonial matters. The number aptly promotes the critique of our - frequently overlooked - Brazilian post-colonial past. It is encouraging to be reminded that we have our own post-colonial theorists who have been long developing their work, concomitantly with so many other authors around the world.
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