A Critical Analysis of Uncanny Characters in Neil Gaiman's Coraline and the Graveyard Book
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A Critical Analysis of Uncanny Characters in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and The Graveyard Book by Kamalini Govender Master of Arts in English Studies School of Arts Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College Supervisor: Dr Jean Rossmann December 2018 CONTENTS Declaration…………………………………………………………………………………... i Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………. ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………... iii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………… iv Chapter 1 – Literature Review 1.1 On the Author and Novels…………………………………………………………………1 1.2 Critical Scholarship on Coraline…………………………………………………………….. 2 1.3 Critical Scholarship on The Graveyard Book…………………………………………………. 5 Chapter 2 – Methodology and Theoretical Concepts 2.1 The Uncanny……………………………………………………………………………… 7 2.2 The Jungian Shadow……………………………………………………………………… 13 2.3 Liminality, Thresholds and Border Theories……………………………………………… 16 Chapter 3 – An Uncanny Witch: An Analysis of Liza Hempstock in The Graveyard Book 3.1 “They say a witch is buried here.”………………………………………………………….20 3.1.1 An Introduction to Liza Hempstock……………………………………………………...20 3.1.2 “Something girl-like. Something grey-eyed.”: Liza as an Ambivalent Figure……………... 22 3.1.2.1 Liza as a Ghost-Witch-Child……………………………………………………………22 3.1.3. “Got no headstone…Might be anybody. Mightn’t I?”: Liza as an Unhomely Figure……..29 3.1.4 “One of us is too foolish to live, and it is not I.”: Liza’s Effect on Bod’s Shadow……….. 33 Chapter 4 – An Uncanny Beldam: An Analysis of the Other Mother in Coraline 4.1 “Her eyes were big black buttons.”…………………………………………………………42 4.1.1 A Description of the Other Mother: Basic Character and Plot Summary…………………43 4.1.2 “Something to love…something to eat.”: The Other Mother’s Ambivalence and Castration…………………………………………………………………………………46 4.1.3 “Like a tired butterfly.”: Doubles and Subjectivity……………………………………… 54 4.1.4 The Other Mother’s Effect on Coraline’s Shadow……………………………………….57 Chapter 5 – Uncanny Connections from North to South: Gaiman and Human’s Children’s Gothic 5.1. A Space for Uncanny Characters and Children’s Gothic in South Africa………………….68 5.1.1 A Short Comparison of Human and Gaiman’s Use of Uncanny Characters……………...69 5.1.2 A South African Gothic………………………………………………………………….70 5.1.3 The Current State of YA Literature in South Africa……………………………………...71 5.1.4 Gothic as Solution to “Spiritual Insecurity” in South Africa……………………………...72 5.1.5 Moving Forward with Uncanny Characters in Children’s Gothic Fiction………………...76 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...78 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………...79-92 i DECLARATION I, Kamalini Govender (203504205), declare that i) The research reported in this dissertation, except where otherwise indicated, is my original work. ii) This dissertation/thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. iii) This dissertation/thesis does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. iv) This dissertation/thesis does not contain other persons’ writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a) their words have been re-written, but the general information attributed to them has been referenced; b) where their exact words have been used, their writing has been placed inside quotation marks, and referenced. v) Where I have reproduced a publication of which I am an author, co-author or editor, I have indicated in detail which part of the publication was actually written by myself alone and have fully referenced such publications. vi) This dissertation/thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the dissertation and in the References sections. Signed: ______________________________ Date: 07 December 2018 Kamalini Govender (203504205) Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in English Studies in the School of Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College. As the candidate’s Supervisor I have approved this dissertation/ thesis for submission. Signed: __ _________ Date: 07 December 2018 Dr Jean Rossmann ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writing of this thesis would not have been possible without the support and love of my parents (thank you for not being like the Other Mother and Other Father): my dad for opening the world of books and imagination to me since I was a little girl, and my mother (the scorpion) whose loyalty and sting have prepared me for my many adventures as a woman in this world. To my siblings by blood and marriage (Sudeshan, Kiasha, Sharika and Ushir) and niece princesses (Aryana and Tahlia), who are constant sources of random information, light and laughter: my ‘warg’ pack forever and always. My own Cat of the Nameless, and constant muse, you allow me to enter the Other Side effortlessly and your paw prints are uncannily all over these pages. My gratitude to Matt, Monster Slayer, who taught me to level up no matter how tough life gets. To Jeremy, mentor and guardian, who took a chance on me as a teacher and allowed me to find a place for these ideas, there are no right words…except maybe… “the warrant is all”. To my balcony ‘friend’ that cheered and spoke words of motivation during the toughest portion of this thesis, thank you for letting me “put your eyes in a jar”. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the University of KwaZulu-Natal, especially my supervisor, Dr Jean Rossmann, for her dedication, attention to detail and hard work in assisting me in the completion of this thesis. An extra special grazie to Mrs Bellusci for her academic guidance and valuable wisdom. “I believe that in the battle between guns and ideas, ideas will, eventually, win. Because the ideas are invisible, and they linger, and, sometimes, they can even be true.” (Gaiman 2016: 8) iii ABSTRACT In this dissertation I examine uncanny characters in Neil Gaiman’s novels Coraline (2002) and The Graveyard Book (2008). I explore what constitutes uncanny characters in his narratives and the consequent effects these characters have on protagonists’ identities: their self-awareness and acknowledgement of alterity. Both novels have been classified under an experimental genre, Children’s Gothic, known for negotiating identity, making use of elements of horror and using allegorical versions of contemporary cultural debates (Jackson 2017). While critics like Richard Gooding (2008) and David Rudd (2008) have explored the uncanny in Coraline for its adolescent maturation and identity formation, dependent on traditional psychoanalytic paradigms of separating the child from the mother figure, I rely on contemporary re-readings of Sigmund Freud’s “uncanny” (1919) in conjunction with Carl Jung’s notion of “the shadow” to reveal how protagonists in Gaiman’s two novels gain self-awareness and an acceptance of ‘the other’. Through an analysis of the ghost-witch-child, Liza Hempstock in The Graveyard Book, and the beldam or Other Mother in Coraline, I reveal how their uncanniness (ambivalence, uncertainty and unhomeliness) blurs binarist notions of good/evil as well as hegemonies of gender, race and religion. As a ghost from the Elizabethan era, Liza reveals the presence of the past and forms of persecution and violence that are transhistorical (witch-hunts, child oppression and Antisemitism). Not dissimilar to Liza, I argue that the Other Mother’s doubling and ambivalence (good/evil, mothering/malign, human/monster) provides a powerful, transgressive alternative to limiting patriarchal definitions of the feminine. Both the Other Mother and Liza thus challenge oppressive forms of thinking and become catalysts for positive change in the protagonists’ sense of self. An understanding of how the uncanny works will assist readers in coming-to-grips with social anxieties involved in living in a multiple society, in which one is constantly confronted by alterity. Gaiman’s novels teach lessons in transforming the fear of the other into a moment of possibility. For this reason, I argue that Gaiman’s novels are relevant to the South African milieu, and share similarities with certain South African Children’s (or Young Adult) Gothic novels, such as Charlie Human’s Apocalypse Now Now (2013). Through a comparison of uncanny characters in Human’s and Gaiman’s novels, I argue for a space for Children’s Gothic in the South African literary landscape. Through uncanny characters, Gothic has the unique capacity to co-opt young readers into the process of disrupting borders, renegotiating identities and bringing about individual and cultural transformation. iv INTRODUCTION The following dissertation critically examines uncanny characters in Neil Gaiman’s novels Coraline (2002) and The Graveyard Book (2008). The purpose is to understand how Gaiman’s characters embody and exemplify the uncanny and what effects these characters have on the protagonists’ identities: their self-awareness and acknowledgement of alterity, of gender and cultural diversity. Both Gaiman’s texts may be classified under a fairly recent genre in children’s literature1 known as “Children’s Gothic,” an experimental genre recognised for exploring negotiations of identity, elements of horror and allegorical versions of contemporary cultural debates (Jackson 2017: 1). As an extension of the eighteenth-century Gothic genre,