The Rebels Shout Back – Subaltern Theory and the Writing of ‘A Christmas Game’
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A Christmas Game/Cheryl Hayden 1 KK51 N5641462 The Rebels Shout Back – subaltern theory and the writing of ‘A Christmas Game’ Submitted by Cheryl Joy Hayden to the Queensland University of Technology for admission to the degree Master of Arts (Research) (Creative Industries). A Christmas Game/Cheryl Hayden 2 KK51 N5641462 Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. Signature: Date: 31 October 2008 A Christmas Game/Cheryl Hayden 3 KK51 N5641462 Abstract The cultures and stories of peripheral populations and conquered peoples, which have largely been drowned out by the accepted discourse of the nation states that colonised them, have begun to be recouped and re-told.The subaltern school of post-colonial theory provides the writer of fiction with a range of theories from which to devise the means of voicing the unvoiced. Among these, Ranajit Guha’s work on the prose of counter-insurgency provides the author with the key to finding lost voices, in particular those of the vanquished peasant rebel. “A Christmas Game” is a fictional account of the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion, in which the commons of Cornwall and Devon rebelled against the abolition of the mass and the introduction of the English language prayer book. By analysing the language and detail contained in the substantial historical record, identifying that which is missing, and examining sources that detail the religious, cultural and “folk” elements of daily life, it is possible to see this event and re-tell it through the eyes of those characters whose stories have never been told and thereby create a new place from which to further debate and research. A Christmas Game/Cheryl Hayden 4 KK51 N5641462 Acknowledgements I am deeply indebted to a number of people for their assistance and support in writing this novel. They include: Alan M. Kent, whose comments, feedback, patience and hospitality have been invaluable and second to none. Also to Tim Saunders, for writing a “mediaeval” Cornish nursery rhyme and then translating it into English, just for me; Sue Winslade of New Zealand, for sharing family research and mythology of the Wynslade family; the Cornwall Heritage Trust for their interest; John White of Lanreath for inviting me to Tregarrick; and Catherine Rachel John, Grand Bard of Cornwall, for her support. Thanks and apologies are due to the Duchy of Cornwall (Trematon Castle), with special gratitude to Morley for the guided tour. Thanks also to a number of busy people who took the time to answer odd questions sent, unsolicited, by email: Prof Eamon Duffy, Dr Mark Stoyle and Dr James Whetter. Thanks also to my writers group, Betty Bingham, Nancy Campbell, Adrienne Ross and Maureen Cook, who kept the story on the rails with demands to know why, wherefore and whatever happens next. Thanks to Julie Burton for the wine, cheese and translation services and the late Andrea Stretton and her 2006 Daku group for a wonderful week of relaxation and writing in Fiji. Heartfelt thanks to John and Pat Haynes for their wonderful Devonshire hospitality and a tour of Sampford Courtenay, Crediton and Exeter that must have tried their patience, and also to the man on the mower at the old bridge at Crediton, who made it all worthwhile with the proud announcement that ‘The Prayer Book Revolution started ’ere’ (God bless him). Finally, thanks to my QUT supervisors, Dr Sue Carson and Dr Glen Thomas, for their exacting oversight and encouragement, and to Sara and Peter who did more than they know to keep me going. A Christmas Game/Cheryl Hayden 5 KK51 N5641462 Table of Contents Exegesis: ‘The Rebels Shout Back – subaltern theory and the writing of ‘A Christmas Game’. 5 The Novel: ‘A Christmas Game’ 43 A Christmas Game/Cheryl Hayden 6 KK51 N5641462 The Rebels Shout Back – subaltern theory and the writing of ‘A Christmas Game’. 1.0 Introduction This project, an exegesis and a novel entitled A Christmas Game, examines a 16th Century rebellion by the people of Cornwall and Devon against the introduction of Edward VI’s first English language Book of Common Prayer, commonly known as either the Prayer Book Rebellion (by the English) or the Western Rising (by the people of Cornwall). The novel interrogates questions of Cornish identity and is informed by historical accounts of the rebellion; cultural studies theories about identity; marginalization and voice; and the discovery of important archival material. Specifically, the novel examines the power of language by subverting the prose of counter-insurgency, which Ranajit Guha (1988) claims has ensured that dominant discourses in history silence the voices of those who rise against the dominant class or society. A Christmas Game is a work of historical fiction that draws on historical events and accounts. Its title comes from the rebels’ description of the new prayer book in the Articles of Demand they sent to the King, but refers ironically to the sense of adventure many of the rebels would have set out with, never anticipating the tragedy about to unfold, and also to the Tudor tradition of Christmas games, which included allowing the children at Court to rule the country on Christmas Day: I was taken by the parallel between this tradition and the fact that Edward VI was only eleven years old at the time of the rebellion. In the novel, narrative events are depicted through the eyes of their leaders and captains, their peasant foot soldiers, the women who actively supported them, and the people left behind. Set in 1549, it tells a story of resistance against, firstly, the English government’s abolition of the traditional Latin Mass and the sacraments held to be absolutely integral to worship and, secondly, against interference in Cornish A Christmas Game/Cheryl Hayden 7 KK51 N5641462 life by the Tudor monarchs’ increasingly nationalist approach to government. The project as a whole argues that, for the Cornish, the compulsory replacement of Cornish and Latin with English presented a threat to their survival as a people. A brief historical account follows in order to provide a context for this discussion. In the summer of 1549, the Cornish ‘rose’ in protest and formed an army of several thousand men, which meant to march on London. However, just as the army was readying to leave Bodmin, an equally outraged and violent Devonshire peasantry also rose in protest over the same prayer book, and the two groups joined forces. The combined army of about 10,000 laid siege to the city of Exeter and presented Edward VI with one of the greatest crises of his reign. Government forces were sent to disperse the rebel army on a promise of pardon, but, as Julian Cornwall describes (1977, 123), their offers were rejected. Eventually the rebel army engaged Lord Russell’s troops in battle and the government sent mercenary forces to ensure the rising was quashed. The Cornish in particular paid heavily for their so-called treachery when Russell allowed the Provost Marshall, Anthony Kingston, to conduct a campaign of terror, including summary executions and confiscations of land, to ‘pacify’ the civilian population (eg: Cornwall, 1977, 201). This project argues that since this period, the Cornish and their stories have been poorly interpreted, misrepresented or completely omitted within the wider British context. Unlike other Celtic populations, they have never been widely recognised as the victims of ethnically-based oppression and, as a result, while they have commemorated the rebellion, the Cornish do not have a tradition of celebrating its leaders as heroes. Some contend that the State continues to deliberately oppress expressions and understanding of Cornish culture and ethnicity. John Angarrack (2002), for example, cites a British school curriculum that ignores the existence of an indigenous population of Britons or Celts, a centrist government that refuses to acknowledge the ancient but extant Stannary A Christmas Game/Cheryl Hayden 8 KK51 N5641462 Parliament, and an English Heritage organization that eliminates the Cornish from the histories of their own historic sites. Exacerbating this situation is the outsider’s appetite for the ‘sanctioned’ version of Cornwall: a place that is lost in the mists of its (Celtic) past or ‘a romantically different, backward and uncivilized place, the haunt of strange people, smugglers, wreckers and other assorted quaint characters’ (Deacon, 2000, 13- 14). Therefore, the process of creating heroes of Cornishmen who were hanged, drawn and quartered as traitors is today still a highly political and contestatory enterprise. This thesis, then, seeks to represent an alternative view of this period in Cornish history by discussing the rebellion in the context of Cornwall’s marginalization (Payton, 2002, chapter 3), the idea of an on-going struggle to maintain its ethnic and cultural difference (Stoyle, 2002a), and the notion of particularity in religious practice (McClain, 2004, chapter 6). It is supported by a creative work that aims to gives voice to the ‘others’ of the rebellion. Therefore, given that the overall project sets out to give voices to the rebels, it highlights the legitimacy of their accounts. That is not to say that the accounts of the English are deemed irrelevant or unlawful. In this project, I have been a researcher in two ways. To inform the creative narrative, I have carried out traditional forms of research, such as reading historical accounts and searching the records for new and interesting clues to the Cornish perspective. This historical/critical research is complemented by the application of select cultural studies theories – in particular Ranajit Guha’s work on the prose of counter-insurgency, which demonstrates how history almost always ensures that the rebelling peasants are absent from and silent within their own history – and practice-led research.