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University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016 University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2016 Considering the Gap Between Theory and Practice: Helen Garner and Things To Talk About Later Jane Helen Scerri University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. 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Recommended Citation Scerri, Jane Helen, Considering the Gap Between Theory and Practice: Helen Garner and Things To Talk About Later, Masters of Creative Writing - Research thesis, School of Arts, English and Media, University of Wollongong, 2016. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/4924 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Considering the Gap Between Theory and Practice: Helen Garner and Things To Talk About Later Jane Helen Scerri Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Alan Wearne Dr Ruth Walker This thesis is presented as part of the requirements for the conferral of the degree: Masters of Creative Writing - Research The University of Wollongong Faculty of Law Humanities and the Arts School of Arts English and Media November 2016 DECLARATION I, Jane Helen Scerri, declare that this thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the conferral of the degree MCA-R, from the University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. This document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Jane Helen Scerri, 22nd November, 2016 ABSTRACT This practice-based creative writing research project consists of a novella, Things to Talk about Later, and an exegesis, Considering the Gap Between Theory and Practice. In both, I investigate how female desire is represented in writing. As the main influence for this project is Helen Garner, this exegesis closely examines three of her early works: Monkey Grip (1977), The Children’s Bach (1984), and the short story ‘The Life of Art’ from Postcards From Surfers (1985). Through textual analysis of these works, I examine Garner’s depiction of female desire in the post- pill pre-AIDs era of Australia in the 1980s. I also touch on her thoughts on writing, including authorial authenticity, anxiety and voice. Garner has referred to the ‘gap between theory and practice’ in most of her early novels – the theory was that monogamy was out and free love was in. The practice was more complex and involved navigating a myriad of fault lines including the painful realities of jealousy, competition and rejection. I propose that it was through Garner’s examination of these fault lines that she so successfully delineated a little talked about era in Australia’s social and cultural history. My novella, Things To Talk About Later, is set abroad in the 1980s and follows the travels of three young adult Australians. It consists of five separate but interrelated stories, which are linked when the protagonists reunite in the final story. These characters are the Sydney equivalent of the young creative types that inhabited Garner’s fictive worlds, which were set in Melbourne in the late1970s and early1980s. While I explore the same fault lines as Garner and aspire to her success in delineating the sociosexual zeitgeist of the 1980s, my novella differs from hers in that it is situated abroad. As such, I use travel as both a narrative device and as a way of examining the relationship amongst cultural and sexual differences, identity, and the Other. KEYWORDS Helen Garner, travel, female desire, 1980s, Australian literature, creative writing ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Alan Wearne for his patience and good humour throughout this project. With his seemingly innate understanding of Australian culture and history, he was also well placed to offer a considered and insightful perspective. I was also fortunate to receive assistance from Dr. Ruth Walker. Though it was her academic writing acumen that I sought, her knowledge of feminism and women’s writing, together with her editorial suggestions, have also been invaluable. Lastly I would like to thank Ms. Elle Lawson who read several drafts of my novella and Dr. William Buttemer who gave editorial assistance with this exegesis. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .....................................................................................iii 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 2. SITUATING CONCEPTS ................................................................................6 2.1 Writing Desire………………………………..............................................6 2.1.1 Desire to Write …………………………………………….............7 2.1.2 The Female Desirous Subject in Narrative ………………..............8 2.1.3 Identity and Language in Desire ………………………….............12 2.1.4 Subject not Object: The Female Gaze…….……………….............16 2.1.5 Monogamy.………………………………………………………...18 2.1.6 Pleasure/Jouissance………….…………………………….............20 2.2 Travel and Writing......................................................................................23 2.2.1 Travel as a Narrative Device………….…………………………...23 2.2.2 Travel to the Other………….……………………………...............25 2.2.3 Elsewhere as Exile………….……………………………...............28 3. PRECEDENTS OF PRACTICE.......................................................................33 3.1 Helen Garner and the 1980s .......................................................................33 3.2 Textual Analysis of Helen Garner’s 1980’s works.....................................38 3.2.1 Monkey Grip…................................................................................39 3.2.2 The Life of Art…………..…..............................................................42 3.2.3 The Children’s Bach....................................................................... 44 4. MY CREATIVE PRACTICE: Writing Things to Talk about Later................48 5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................60 REFERENCES .....................................................................................................64 THINGS TO TALK ABOUT LATER……………................................................69 Table of Contents……………………………………………………………….70 Prologue……………...........................................................................................71 Elegant Chopsticks……………...........................................................................74 On Reception……………....................................................................................84 Madam Madam…………….................................................................................96 It’s Me She’s Angry With……………................................................................152 The History of Modern Art……………..............................................................211 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This practice-based creative writing project comprises a novella (Things To Talk About Later) and an exegesis that reflects on how that novella was created (Considering the Gap Between Theory and Practice). Essentially the novella represents the practice and the exegesis the theory, which in turn reflects iteratively on the novella. The production of the novella is also iterative, in that it is the result of a continuum of writing, reading, re-writing and editing. In this way I consider this overall research project to be a somewhat self-conscious enquiry into how to engage with practice, whilst embracing theory. This exegesis focuses on the early works of Helen Garner, whose works stylistically and thematically most closely resemble what I aim to emulate in my novella. Apart from the works of Helen Garner, the other Australian writers’ works that have influenced this project include Jane and Anna Campion’s Holy Smoke (1999), which I found clearly depicted a peculiarly Australian penchant – the desire to be elsewhere and Christos Tsoilkas’ novels Loaded (1995), Dead Europe (2005), and The Slap (2008). Tsoilkas’ early novels typically represent the sexual desires

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