"Ungrown-Up Grown-Ups" : the Representation of Adolescence In
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Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. Abstract Behaviouralists consider adolescence a time for developing autonomy, which accords with Michel Foucault‘s power/knowledge dynamic that recognises individuals‘ assertion of independence as a crucial element within society. Surprisingly, however, twentieth-century New Zealand Young Adult (YA) fiction tends to disempower adolescents, by portraying an adultist version of them as immature and unprepared for adult responsibilities. By depicting events through characters‘ eyes, a focalising device that encourages reader identification with the narratorial point-of-view, authors such as Esther Glen, Isabel Maud Peacocke, Joyce West, Phillis Garrard, Tessa Duder, Lisa Vasil, Margaret Mahy, William Taylor, Kate de Goldi, Paula Boock, David Hill, Jane Westaway, and Bernard Beckett stress the importance of conforming to adult authority. Rites of passage are rarely attained; protagonists respect their elders, and juvenile delinquents either repent or are punished for their misguided behaviours. ―Normal‖ expectations are established by the portrayal of single parents who behave ―like teenagers‖: an unnatural role reversal that demands a return to traditional hegemonic roles. Adolescents must forgive adults‘ failings within a discourse that rarely forgives theirs. Depictions of child abuse, while deploring the deed, tend to emphasise victims‘ forbearance rather than admitting perpetrators‘ culpability. As Foucault points out, adolescent sexuality both fascinates and alarms adult society. Within the texts, sex is strictly an adult prerogative, reserved for reproduction within marriage, with adolescent intimacy sanctioned only between couples who conform to the middle-class ideal of monogamy. On the other hand, teenagers who indulge in casual sex are invariably given cause to regret. Such presentations operate vicariously to protect readers from harm, but also create an idealised, steadfast sense of adultness in the process. ii iii Acknowledgements I wish to thank my supervisors: Dr John Muirhead for never losing sight of the ―big picture,‖ and Dr William Broughton for his attention to the details. I would also like to thank Emeritus Professors Glynnis Cropp and Don Bewley for their encouragement, John Bevan Ford for asking questions, and Associate Professor Roy Shuker and Dr Angie Farrow for listening. This project would not have been possible without the unwavering love and support of my family. I dedicate this thesis to Beth and the late Hodson Pearse; to Robert, Edward and Sophie Laurs; and to Axel, who always believed I could. iv v Table of Contents Abstract ..............................................................................................i Acknowledgements ......................................................................... iii Table of Contents .............................................................................. v Chapter One: Addled Essence .......................................................... 1 Adolesco, adolescere, adultus. ......................................................... 2 ―Storm and stress‖ .......................................................................... 6 Adolescence in Literature .............................................................. 15 New Zealand Young Adult Fiction ................................................ 21 Chapter Two: “When I grow up…” ............................................... 27 ―Someday he meant to do something…splendid‖ .......................... 28 ―A nice little job‖ .......................................................................... 38 ―Womanly qualities‖ ..................................................................... 47 ―In love with being in love‖ .......................................................... 52 Gentlemen admirers ...................................................................... 60 ―The parents are making the best of it‖ .......................................... 63 Chapter Three: Storm & Stress: .................................................... 69 ―Tipped a bit to one side‖ .............................................................. 72 ―Just a silly boy‖ ........................................................................... 77 ―To think for yourself‖ .................................................................. 82 Juvenile delinquents ...................................................................... 85 Uniformity .................................................................................... 99 Peer Pressure .............................................................................. 109 ―Getting wasted‖ ......................................................................... 114 Chapter Four: “What about the olds?” ....................................... 123 ―You know what parents are like‖ ............................................... 130 ―I was as happy as a teenager‖ .................................................... 138 ―Normal‖ parents ........................................................................ 145 ―Don‘t expect her to be perfect‖ .................................................. 147 ―I learned to hide‖ ....................................................................... 155 Chapter Five: The Birds & the Bees ............................................ 177 ―Tubes and cells‖ ........................................................................ 179 vi ―My hour has come‖ ................................................................... 186 ―Teenage groping‖ ..................................................................... 197 ―One thing led to another, then to another, and so on‖ ................ 207 ―When he was younger than I am now‖ ...................................... 213 ―It‘s not easy, being gay‖ ............................................................ 216 Chapter Six: “Ungrown-up grown-ups” ..................................... 233 Works Cited: ................................................................................ 242 Primary Texts ............................................................................. 242 Secondary Texts ......................................................................... 244 Works Consulted .......................................................................... 257 1 Chapter One: Addled Essence Mention the term adolescent and various images may come to mind: the self- conscious misfit, spending ―miserable hours examining his nose before the mirror, despairing over its size‖ (Hollingsworth 1947 18); the juvenile delinquent who deliberately sets out to shock, ―not merely by way of emphasis, but with unseemly and blasphemous vigour‖ (Manning 1958 56); the ―poetic notion of the young, languishing over Keats and Shelley, trailing diaphanous scarves…, pining and sighing for pure love, and daydreaming darkly of suicide pacts‖ (Ritchie and Ritchie 1984 11); the fashion-conscious teenager, living ―in a movie, pulp novel and rock‘n‘roll saturated world‖ (Yska 1993 177). These descriptions are perhaps best summed up in the words of New Zealand children‘s author, David Hill, in 1998: ―Roughly the age at which human beings shouldn‘t exist, actually‖ (tape-recorded interview with author). No other period of human development is considered at once so complex and so contradictory, yet such predominantly negative definitions say as much, if not more, about the adult commentators as about the group they are seeking to categorise. Although adolescence is grounded in physiological changes that commence at puberty, over time it has acquired an increasing number of culturally constructed connotations with ever-changing demarcations. While commentators such as psychologists, sociologists, behaviouralists, and educationalists endeavour to explain ―what adolescence is,‖ poststructuralists identify a difference between ―what is real‖ and the construction of reality. Marjory Hourihan, for example, in Deconstructing the Hero: Literary Theory and Children‟s Literature, draws upon Roland Barthes‘ use of the term ―myth‖ to describe the way in which ―certain stories and images function to shape our perception of reality‖ (12). She elaborates: For Barthes, myths are omnipresent signs which impose upon us the belief that something simply ―goes without saying;‖ they create a perception of the ―falsely obvious‖ (Barthes [1957] 1973 11) [that] makes contingent events and behaviour seem inevitable, part of the nature of things. (12) 2 Extrapolating from this, social discourse about adolescents and adolescent behaviour creates the myth of ―the teenager,‖ which appears to acquire an existence all of its own. The myth of adolescence forms the focus of this thesis, in relation to its representation of characters aged between fourteen and twenty in New Zealand children‘s fiction written for readers aged between twelve and eighteen. The characters‘ age range is based on the observation that younger characters, twelve and thirteen-year-olds, tend to be regarded as immune from the vagaries associated with adolescence, often functioning within the texts as appropriate spokespeople to convey the adult point-of-view. Fourteen-years-old, on the other hand, seems to signify characters‘ impatience to leave childish things behind, while twenty represents the upper limit for works intended