Inheritance and Expectations

Inheritance and Expectations: The Ambivalence of the Colonial Orphan Figure in Post-Colonial Re-Writings of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. By Motoko Sugano A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Research) University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia September, 2005 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Thesis/Project Report Sheet Family name: SUGANO First name: MOTOKO Other names: - Abbreviation for degree as given in the University Calendar: MA (RESEARCH) School: ENGLISH Faculty: ARTS and SOCIAL SCIENCES Title: ‘INHERITANCE AND EXPECTATIONS: THE AMBIVALENCE OF THE COLONIAL ORPHAN FIGURE IN POST-COLONIAL RE-WRITINGS OF CHARLES DICKENS’S GREAT EXPECTATIONS’ ABSTRACT (350 words maximum) This thesis considers the colonial literary relationship between the ‘centre’ and the ‘margin’ in the field of post-colonial counter-discourse. As such, this thesis investigates the possibility of disrupting the dominance of Empire, which is often rhetorically constructed through the certainty of the parent and child binary relationship. By analysing the orphan’s affiliational associations, which exist beyond the traditional binary of parent and child in the colonial relationship, I argue that the orphan, as both figure and trope, becomes a site of resistance to the dominant colonial discourse. Re-reading Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations with two Australian re-writings of his text in mind – Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs and Gail Jones’s Sixty Lights – this thesis investigates the particular case of post-colonial counter-discursive practice, and explores the way in which the orphan figure in each re-writing inscribes their expectations and thereby refigures the power hierarchy between the canonical European text and the post-colonial re- writing. In order to do so, I have organised this thesis into four main chapters, each of which develops a specific interrogation of the orphan figure in light of post-colonial theory and criticism. So, chapter one considers the colonial figure and the trope of parent and child, investigating the influence that this trope wields in casting the racialised colonial Other as ‘savage’ and ‘primitive’, but, ultimately, ‘child-like’. Chapter two furthers this observation by highlighting the disruptive affect of such naturalised perspectives of the colonial Other—evidenced in post-colonial theory through the motion of the key concepts of ambivalence and abjection. And, it is in this context that chapters three and four stand as direct examinations of the disruptive affect of the orphan figure. Discussing Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs and Gail Jones’s Sixty Lights (respectively), these last two chapters formalise the subversive agency assumed by the orphan, and locate it in the very practice of ‘writing back to the centre’. Declaration relating to disposition of thesis I am fully aware of the policy of the university relating to the retention and use of higher degree project report and theses, namely that the University retains the copies submitted for examination and is free to allow them to be consulted or borrowed. Subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, the University may issue a project report or thesis in whole or in part, in Photostat or microfilm or other copying medium. I also authorise the publication by University Microfilms of a 350 word abstract in Dissertation Abstracts International (applicable to doctorates only). ................................................. ................................................. ................................................ Signature Witness Date The University recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances requiring restrictions on copying or conditions on use. Requests for restriction for a period of up to 2 years must be made in writing to the Registrar. Requests for a longer period of restriction may be considered in exceptional circumstances if accompanied by a letter of support from the Supervisor or Head of School. Such requests must be submitted with the thesis/project report. FOR OFFICE USE ONLY Date of completion of requirements for Award: Registrar and Deputy Principal For Hinako (b. 12.09.01) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would like to thank the following people and institutions for the support they have shown me during the period it has taken to write this thesis. I thank Associate Professor Sue Kossew and Professor Bill Ashcroft at UNSW for their academic input, which has always been invaluable to me. Their belief in my research topic has given me the confidence to pursue my research. My project could not have been completed had I not had two extremely supportive supervisors. Among all the friendly fellow post-graduates at UNSW School of English, I would particularly like to send my best regards to Timothy Roberts and Dr Grant Hamilton. I thank Tim for his officemateship. His tireless patience in sharing the office with a noisy international student who occasionally bombards questions and enquiries of all sorts imaginable, I admire and respect. I thank Grant for his spirit of volunteer mentorship. His unending generosity of time, to talk about literary theories or to edit my drafts, enabled me to have a glimpse of clarity in the state of hopeless confusion and chaos. My life in Sydney would have been very different if I had not met the people at the FASS. Amongst all, I would especially like to thank Peter ‘Pierre’ Balint, Jared van Duinen, Sean Hosking, Kate Mason, Agnes Vogler, Nathan Wise for assisting me to write ‘in English’. I would also like to thank Diana Adis for her friendship. She never failed to cheer me up with her ‘can do’ attitude. I would like to extend my thanks to the library staff of both UNSW and the State Library of New South Wales for helping me out to reach their archival materials. Professor Yoko Fujimoto and Dr Aiko Watanabe of Waseda University in Tokyo had read an early draft of a part of chapter three and gave me a constructive criticism. Their comments helped me, not only to widen the perspective, but also to develop a fuller thesis argument. This thesis could not have been written without support from my family. I thank my parents Teiji and Toyoko Sugano and my sister Hiroko Kato for their understanding of my study here, which has always been demonstrated in the manner of ‘no news is good news’. So, I would like to conclude this page of thanks with the word, Arigato. M.S. CONTENTS Acknowledgement Introduction Conceiving the Orphan 1 Chapter ONE: The Child and Empire 25 Chapter TWO: The Orphan in Empire 49 Chapter THREE: Fathering the Orphan, Orphaning the Father— Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs 72 Chapter FOUR: The Family of the Orphan— Gail Jones’ Sixty Lights 97 Conclusion Inheritance and Expectations 123 Bibliography 129 1 Introduction: Conceiving the Orphan ‘Deep,’ said Wemmick, ‘as Australia.’ Pointing with his pen at the office floor, to express that Australia was understood, for the purpose of the figure, to be symmetrically on the opposite spot of the globe.1 Our history is a history of orphans, or so my mother liked to say. She used the word in a sense both literal and sentimental. She did not mean it in the sense that it is true for the nation as a whole, but only as it applied to the three corners of the family history. 2 In the post-colonial world where the experience of dislocation further complicates the subject position of writers, the mapping of literatures in English inevitably exhibits the diversity of transcultural exchanges. It is such cultural exchanges beyond borders, and the consequent transformation of the dominant culture through literary texts, which forms the background to this thesis. For those writers who experience dislocation or marginalisation, language and literature in English are the locations of both resistance and complicity; a hybrid space of both ‘inheritance’ and ‘expectations’. Yet, it is the questions that arise from this situation that inform my thesis: in what way do contemporary writers who have no direct experience of colonial rule, yet undoubtedly still feel the legacy of colonialism, respond to the experience of colonisation? How do they engage with the literary inheritance proffered by the colonial ‘father’ of Europe in order to ‘write back’ to it—to subvert the hegemony of the British literary canon? In order to address this issue of resistance in contemporary re-readings and re-writings of colonial discourse, this thesis considers the colonial literary relationship between the ‘centre’ and the ‘margin’ in the field of post-colonial counter-discourse. As such, the thesis investigates the possibility of disrupting the dominance of Empire, which is often 1 Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 197. 2 Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1988, p.390. 2 rhetorically constructed through the certainty of the parent and child binary relationship. In order to do so, this thesis turns to the often over-looked figure of the orphan. By analysing the orphan’s affiliational associations, which exist beyond the traditional binary of parent and child in the colonial relationship, I argue that the orphan, as both figure and trope, becomes a site of resistance to dominant colonial discourse. Indeed, the orphan represents a profound ambivalence in colonial discourse due to its ‘parentless’ ontological condition. The post-colonial orphan seeks parentage, that is, a beginning, a point of origin, or a knowable history. In search of its origin or genesis, the post-colonial orphan attempts to situate its genealogy in terms of its affiliated cultural inheritance, onto which the orphan inscribes personal expectations that ultimately insist on the hybridisation of any and all cultural inheritance. Re-reading Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (1861) with two Australian re-writings of his text in mind – Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs (1997) and Gail Jones’ Sixty Lights (2004) – this thesis investigates the particular case of post-colonial counter-discursive practice, and explores the way in which the orphan figure in each re-writing inscribes their expectations and thereby refigures the power hierarchy between the canonical European text and the post-colonial re-writing.

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