Generational Change Women and Writing in the Novels of Thea Astley

MAUREEN LYNCH PÈRCOPO

HE UNEXPECTED DEATH OF THEA ASTLEY in August 2003 seemed to occasion an essay in remembrance of her writing, and an T opportunity to return to the novels of an author whose work I greatly admire. The aspect of Astley’s writing I intend to analyze in this essay is the question of ‘generational change’ as apparent in the representation of women in her fiction.1 To what extent did Astley during her forty years of literary activity move into the sphere of ‘feminist’ writers? To what degree did she write within a ‘gendered’ space? Together with the new generation of women writers from the 1970s onwards, how did she question the role of ‘patriarchy’ during these years? These questions will be approached by focusing on the presence or absence of women as protagonists in her fiction, on the highlight- ing or downgrading of their fictional roles, together with a brief consideration of the critical evaluation of her narrative style during the different stages of her writing career. Astley, as one who has been presented as writing with a ‘male’ or ‘neutral’ voice, and has more recently been seen by critics as a ‘feminine’ or a ‘feminist’ writer, clearly did not remain static in her approach. For many years she placed a form of self censure on her experience as a wo- man, for she saw Australian society in those days as tending to exclude wo- men from creative roles. Her writing favoured male figures as chief protago- nists, often the object of biting criticism. In her mature works, however, not only did Astley develop an ability to manipulate time and points of view, where the individual narrative themes and voices are divided into complex

1 This essay was developed from seminar studies with several of my dissertation students at the University of Cagliari, in particular Patrizia Desogus, whose contribution I wish to acknowledge here. 168 MAUREEN LYNCH PÈRCOPO ½¾ sub-stories that enrich her presentation and narrative style, but she also shifted decisively towards an emphasis on women as protagonists, figures who stand in opposition to male culture. Thea Astley’s fourteen novels and three books of collected stories cover a period of forty years or so. But if we attempt a brief examination of this cycle of writing, how and when do her women emerge? To what extent can their struggle for independence from a male- dominated culture be considered successful? Does independence bring with it a fair measure of security or happiness? Notably, women are the protagonists of both the author’s first novel, Girl with a Monkey (1958), and her last, Drylands (1999).2 But the Elsie of the first is a resilient young woman, determined to find her independent way in life, while the Janet of the last appears deeply disillusioned, an outsider whose only victory, it seems, will be in leaving the ‘drylands’ of the title. This final work presents a very bleak outlook, is savage in its denunciation of surround- ing male complacency, bigotry, and even brutality. It is saved from apparently almost complete feminine defeat only by the stubbornness of the runaway Lannie, who successfully asserts her independence as an individual. But apart from these, her first and last novels, how did Astley, in the intervening years, deal with the representation of women? The reader is soon aware that after the initial presentation of Elsie in Girl with a Monkey, in a novel which focuses on a winning, if unconventional female protagonist to the detriment of the refused and weaker male lover, the novels that follow tend to highlight female powerlessness or to show women as undervalued. Of the two lovers in A Descant for Gossips (1960),3 it is the woman who, although stronger and of a more independent mind than her partner, is forced to move to another town when their relationship becomes known. If the adult Helen is unconventional in her disregard for local morality in her affair with Robert, she, too, is defeated by the prevailing standards. Even more so is the teenager Vinny, forsaken by Helen in her flight. Both women are ineffectual in controlling their fates, but for the girl, overcome by disregard and neglect, loneliness leads to a suicidal end. In the middle years of her production, Astley – as she declared in an often- quoted interview – feeling that she had been “neutered by her upbringing,” decided that the only way her writing would have “any sort of validity” would be to present her works through a male voice.4 Astley’s first poems were, in fact, published under the pen-name of ‘Philip Cressey’. This “writing as a

2 Thea Astley, Girl with a Monkey (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1958), and Drylands (Melbourne: Viking, 1999). 3 Astley, A Descant for Gossips (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1960). 4 Candida Baker, “Thea Astley,” in Yacker: Australian Writers Talk About Their Work (Sydney: Picador, 1986): 42.