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Parallax: the novel ‘After and Before Now’ and an accompanying exegesis ‘Experiencing the Ekphrastic Imaginary’ Chelsea Avard B.A. (Hons) Presented as requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Discipline of English, School of Humanities University of Adelaide, South Australia July 2010 Contents Abstract vii Declaration ix Acknowledgements xi After and Before Now: a novel Prologue: Names 1 Part One: Optogram 7 Part Two: Gift 161 Part Three: Wunderkammer 241 Epilogue: M is for … 279 Experiencing the Ekphrastic Imaginary: an exegesis accompanying the novel ‘After and Before Now’ Lacunae Revisited: introducing the ekphrastic imaginary of ‘After and Before Now’ 1 Part I – Creation The Art(ist) Object(ive) 9 Words and Images: coming to ekphrasis 17 Ekphrasis – development of a working definition 17 The Time/Space Divide 18 Paragone and ekphrastic anxiety 20 Postmodernism/Poststructuralism, stasis and the spatialisation of literature 22 Kaleidoscope/dynamic collage 23 Elevating the object 25 Demarcation – reproducing non-fiction art writing 25 Demarcation – reproducing the gallery context 27 Postmodern/Poststructuralist influences 29 Parallel perspectives/narratives 30 Naturalising description 31 Notionality and temporal mobility 32 Images and Words: towards the verbal object 35 ‘Optogram’ 35 ‘Gift’ 42 ‘Wunderkammer’ 44 A Portrait of Lola 46 Part II – Curation The Double Helix 49 The ekphrastic novel 49 Creating a world 54 Novel as exhibition 55 Quantum Physics and Literature 57 Time and chapter structure 60 Portals and wormholes 62 Intersubjectivity and the object 65 Quantum entanglement and shifting focaliser 67 Quantum entanglement and fugueing ekphrasis 70 Fragmentation of narrative consciousness 72 Fragmentation and suicide bereavement 74 Fragmentation and self-creating transformative acts 75 Future-memory and the possibility of wholeness 76 WORKS CITED 81 Abstract ‘Parallax’ is a hybrid creative writing PhD thesis comprised of two interrelated parts – the novel ‘After and Before Now’, and its accompanying exegesis ‘Experiencing the Ekphrastic Imaginary’. Both novel and exegesis are concerned with notions of multiplicity and simultaneity as they relate to acts of creation, transformation and to ideas of the self. ‘After and Before Now’ is an ekphrastic novel exploring connections between creativity and selfhood through the experiences of its central protagonist, young visual artist Lola Hayward. The three-part narrative centres on the opening night of an exhibition to which Lola has contributed three main works. The novel’s formal structure is circu-linear, with a kaleidoscopic approach to narrative point-of-view that utilises first, second and third person perspectives to examine and represent the idea of the multifaceted self. The imagined art objects function as temporal touchstones, entry points through which narrative burrows into the present moment, into the memories and projections of events and ideas formative and transformative, gateways to those shadow-selves that continue to underlie and inform Lola’s attempts to understand her own being and becoming. ‘Experiencing the Ekphrastic Imaginary’ is a fictocriticial essay investigating the processes of writing the novel, with a particular focus on its imagined art objects, and on the representation of creative praxis. Contemporary ekphrastic fiction and theory are surveyed within the context of the search for an appropriate framework and language for the exegetical discussion. Exploration of and experimentation with the temporal/spatial possibilities and constraints of the ekphrastic mode are described in the context of the novel’s treatment of the interconnected narrative spheres of structure, tense and perspective. The creation of the novel’s structure is also explicated through a discussion of the relationship between literary theory and quantum theory. The notion of slippage – between author and narrator, truth and fiction, art and self – is linked to the concept of the transformative act of selfhood. Both texts engage with and explore techniques of discontinuity, destabilisation, intertextuality and self-reflexivity in order to seek out strategies for and methods of representing the interdependent, indissoluble nature of the relationship between the creative process and the transformative self. Declaration This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for loan and photocopying, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. In the case of ‘After and Before Now’ there will be a one year embargo. I also give permission for the digital version of my thesis to be made available on the web, via the University’s digital research repository, the Australian Digital Theses Program (ADTP) and also through web search engine, unless permission has been granted by the University to restrict access for a period of time. Chelsea Avard July 2010 Acknowledgements First thanks to Dr Susan Hosking for her steady, patient support and invaluable critical feedback offered during the process of writing the thesis. Thank you to Dr Phillip Edmonds for his supervision in the early stages of the novel’s drafting, and also to Dr Jan Harrow for her encouragement throughout the process. I am very grateful to mentor Melanie Ostell for her timely advice and enthusiasm. ‘Parallax’ was completed with the help of an Australian Postgraduate Award. Thanks also go to the staff and students of the Adelaide University Department of English, for providing support and inspiration in a multitude of ways. Particular thanks to Katherine Doube, Rachel Hennessy, Stephanie Hester, Amy Matthews and Louise Pine; brilliant writers, generous readers, cherished friends. I also thank the Sarahs – Dobie, Kinghorn, Olive – each a muse, sounding board and insightful conversationalist. Thanks to Robyn and Bill Standing for countless hours during which I did not have to split my concentration between Lego instructions and literary theory. I am also indebted to the warm, loving, energetic and patient staff of City Childcare Centre. Thank you to my son Harper, for giving me the best reason to finish the book, to my parents Tony and Karen for believing it was achievable, and to my sister Tracy for making it possible. And to Tim, my one. After and Before Now a novel for Christopher The I expresses itself as I, you, or he. All three persons are present in me. The Trinity. One person says you to the I, and the other treats the I as he. Paul Valéry, Cahiers. Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets. Concerning the life story, there are no precise instructions. The beginning can start at any point in time, just as a first glance can alight on any point within a painting; what matters is that, gradually, the whole picture reemerges. Michel Houellebecq, The Possibility of an Island. Prologue Names My name is ... This is how we all begin, isn’t it? This person’s name is Lola. She is me. This one is Mother. This one Father. They are not me. Not you. They have their own names. Our names are given to us by others. People who don’t yet know us. Who know only themselves. Tom, perhaps, they might name us Tom. A man and a woman might have a conversation late one night, lying in bed. His large, workworn hand, it might be a sculptor’s hand, might lie covering the Everest of her belly. Could we, he might ask, could we name him after my brother? The brother he has not seen since they were children, the brother from whom he was separated by their father’s violence, their mother’s death, an indifferent system. He will father this son. He will not let him go. He knows this boy already, this boy moving beneath his hands, beneath the undulating skin of his wife’s belly. His gentle hands, his loving hands, his safe hands. His hands that are not like his father’s. Thomas, his wife will sigh, her breath slowing as she falls asleep. Tom, he will say quietly, Tom. This will make him very happy on this night, lying in bed, his palm over her navel. He will dream that her deep sleep is a natural sleep. He will dream that she is happy. That she will not leave again. They will love each other well now, he will dream. There will be no pain, no loss. All will be well. She will be well. Tom and Grey. We will be her son and her husband and we will make her happy; she will stay. Your name was given to you by others. The same man and another woman might lie in a years-later bed and have a different conversation about names and knowledge. This woman will not sigh and nod and fall asleep. This woman will have many opinions about names and their power, words of all kinds and their use. She will love words and hate them. She will make lists of names and their meanings, pressing hard into the paper with a fountain pen, thickening the callous on the middle finger of her right hand. She will circle her middle finger around her protruding navel and, having done much research into the matter, give him her opinion of the list of possible names he has offered her. They’re all the same name, she’ll tell him. And not one of them is right. Not for my daughter. It is a daughter, she will know that. Here, I looked them up. She will pull a sheet of paper out from beneath her pillow, and pass it to him, pointing out the problem.