Place and Displacement As Major Structrual and Thematic Elements In

B" ?L.rt 3o PL¿rce and Displacement as Major Structural anoi. thematic Elements 1n Some Australian Novels Kerryn lee Golclslvorth¡rr 3,4. (Flons. ) A thesis submi-tted for th-e degree of lloctor of Phl]osophy in the nepartment of English, Unj.versity of Adelaide. March 1980 ir:i'¡"' llìr,ul"lr, ìr.,...i [,,e"ìrur,,,r , i TASIT OF CONTENÎS Page no, SUMMÀRY.. .. aa aa aa aa aa aa aa iii vi STATEMENÎ .. aa .Q aa aa aa aa ÀCKNO'i/IEDGEMENÎS aa oa aa aa aa aa aa vi1 ASBREVTATTONS aa aa aa vii.i 1 TNTRONUCTTON., at aa aa aa aa .Q aa Section One: The Convict Novel CHAPTER ]- 13 Place as Punishment aa aa CHAPTER 2 The Principle of fnversion aa aa OE aa 35 CFIAPÎER 3 52 Plaee as Myth aa aa aa aa aa aa Section lwo: The LJxpatriate Novel CHAPTER 4 74 Expatriate 'rVriting and Attitudes to Place aa CHAPÎER 5 Tl-5 A Sense of DÍ-splacement ao la aa aa CHAPTER 6 l-66 Looklng For fthaca aa ao oa aa aa Section fhree: The Novels of Patrick White CHAPTER 7 209 Place and Narrative $tructure aa aa oa CIIAPTER B 247 The Indj-vidual and the landÉeepe. aa aa LL CHAP?ER 9 The Journey aa aa aa aa aa aa 267 CHAPTER 10 Houses and Shrines aa ao aa 286 coNclusroN .. .. .. aa aa aa aa aa 303 IIST OF V/ORKS CONSÜITED aa aa aa aa aa 309 1ff SUNMIARY The thesís concerns the notion of place and. its lmportance in a serection of twentieth-eentr,ry Austrarlan novel-s. The alm of th-e thesis Ís to demonstrate the way in which the authors invoh'ed are concerned not merely wlth the id.eas of landscape and f spirit of placer, but with the v/a,ys in wh.ich these and other aspects of the ldea of place can be used as an important element in the thematlc clevelopment of the novel-, and as a determinant of its structure. The thesis is divided into three main sections. The first of these examlnes two novels in the convic,c genre, Hal Porter t s Îhe Tl]ted Cross and Thomas Keneal-l-y t s $igg larks ano] Ileroes. The fírst chapter coneerns the notion of place as pr.mishment, and exar¡ines the vray in which. Porter and Keneally emphaslse the hostlLe and. punitive aspects of the lanCscape and atmoephere of Australia. The second eirapter deals vr¡ith the novelistsr Ìrsre of the ,{ntipodean rnyt}r and its rrrlde:rlying principle of inverslon; the geographica,l reversal-s of the Souther.n Flemisphere are used to provide a parallel for the miscarriages of justice which occur irr both novels. the fina.l chapter in this section d,eaLs with the authors t use of classical and 1v christlan mythologr and its archet¡rpa1 plaees of punishment and revlard. The second section cleals with some noveLs by Australlan e:tpatriate writers: Henry Hancìel Richardsorrrs The Fortunes of Richard Mahony , Christina Steadrs For love Al_one , Martin Boydts four langton novels, and George Johnstonrs $g Brother Jaek trilo g5r. The first of the three chapters in this section concerïls attitudes to place in erçatriate writing general1.y, and makes some corrrparison between Ameriean and austral-ian expatriate writing. The second chapter deal-e with the themes of alienation and errile; the third examines the novel-1s'ùsr use of the ulysses qyth and the varíations on this theme vr¡hich relate to the id.ea of place: the u.se ancl signlficance of sea imagery; the theme of the q.uest and the search f or a spiritual home; ancl the 1cìea of the voyage. The final section deals r',¡ith the el-even novel-s of Patrick lihite. the flrst chapter exanlnes the idea of plaee as a deternúnant of narrative structure in al-l of lvhiters novels. The second. deals with the rel-ation between the individual arrd the land.scap e in The Tree of Man and Voss; the third rvith the theme of the journey and the paraIleIs between physica.l and spiritual voyages in The Aunt t s Stor-v and A, Frinp:e of leaves. The l-ast chapter concerns the importance of houses a.nd th.e ldea of the temple, the plaee of ivorship, in. \;v'hitets v¡ork. v The thesls is concluded by a brief comparatlve surunary of the three sectlons. The different ways j.n which the authors cliscussed 1n the first two sections create and use a specifle and, sharply defined lmage of Auetralla ane examined. and. compared wlth the approach of Fatrick Whfte, the runlversalr quality of whose work ie regarded by ner\y crlties as e. final etage 1n the growth to naturlty of Australlan llterature, v1 ST¡,TETflENT thts theeis contalns no material whieh hae been aceepted. for the award of any other degree or diplorna in any unlversity; nor, to the best of uy knowledge and belief, does it eontaln any material previously published. or wrltten by another person, except where due reference ie mad.e 1n the text or footnotes. Kerryn Gold.sworthv vil ACKTOITLEDGEMENTS ï wlsh to thank Professor John Co].mer of the university of Á,delaide for his clear and cl-ear-slghted advÍce and aÍd, and for his eneouragement, in the preparation of this theeÍs. I a,m also grateful to Professor ran Reid. of neakln ualverslty for hls practfcal he1p and moral- support in the dublous early stages of research. vl1f ASBREVIATTONS Section Two of this th.esi.s d.eals v¡l-th eleven different novels, two or more of which are often discussed together; to avoid confusj-on and. for the sake of consisterrcÍr quotations from these novels are identifled throughout this sectlon with the following abbreviations: A3: Austral-ia I¡el1x WII: The YJay Home UÎ: Ultlma Thule FIA: For love A,lone TCC: The Cardboard Crovrn DTI{: A Diffieul-t Yor¡ng Man 0l¡ Outbreak of lrove WBS: When Blackblrds SinE IIBJ ¡ ffiy Brother Jack CSN: Cl.ean Straw For Nothlng ACC: À Cartload of Clay Page mrmbers given for prinary sou:rces throughout the thesis refer to editlons cited in the 11st of v,rorks consulted. 1 ÏNTRODUCTTON the thesis concerns the use of the iclea of place in fiction, within the fielcl of the tr.','entieth-century Australian novel. îhe ai-m of the thesis is to olemonstrate how the importance of place in Austral-ian noveLs is not conflned to the rlandscape obsessionr i,vhich. 1s the subJect orr as he puts it, the tburdenr - of Brlan Elliottts survey of Australian poetry;I nor to the evocatj-on of that tspirlt of pÌaeet which is al-nrost a tangible presenee in the Australian literary atmosphere. The noveLj-s'ts here dir¡cussed. use the notion of place as a cornerstone ln the construetion of their fiction; lanrrscape and setting are not merely a backdrop for the drEuna of hu¡ran experienee vrhich is the stuff of fiction, but an essentia1 part of, and sometimes a deternrinant of r that erperience, This much is true to some extent of al-l fiction. American novelist and. short-etory writer Eudora Ìo/elty arÉçues that location 1s s,n essential faetor in making fiction cred.ibl-e; that whatever vagaries of character and pJ-ot a writ-er night concelve, these can be brought to life in the readerrs Ímagination only through their confinement -1- Brian Elì-iott, 'Ihe landscape of Australlan Poetry (N1elbourne : Cheshire, 1967), p. 32I. 2 to the unavoiclable realj-ties of placet F1i¿ce in fiction is the na.med, ld.entified, concrete, exact and exacting, anrl theref ore credible, gathering-spot of all that has been felt, is about to be experienced, in the noveLfs progress ... placê ... f s for il:re writer writing simply locus. It is where the particular story he urri_tes can be pinned. d.ovm, the cj-rcIe. it can Êp-tn through and keep the state of gr¿cer so that for thg storyrs duration the rest of the wopld suspencìs its clalm upon it and lies l.ow ... Place i-s seen here as a basic structural element in fiction, a kind of ground plr-r.n agalnst rq/hicl: the architecture of character and event can be d.eveloped.. But in addition to this, wlthin the context of Austrarian Iì.terature, the combination of the sin6¡r1ar history wÍth the even more singular geography of Australia lenct-s itself generously to metaphor and symbolism; ln Australian literatr.rre the recurrent tlre¡aes of justlce and authority, of allenation and exil-er of reconcÍliation and redemption, are al-} inextricably bound. up with the nature of the country, lts social history and its landscape. fn the novelr: considered here, parallels are drawn between place ancl character, or 'oetween place and theme: the house is an extension of the sel-f ; lanclscape reflects soclety; physical journeys refLect psycl.rologieal or splritual journeys; hornelessness reflects the alienation of the individual from soeiety or from God.. The symbolisn of place provid,es a connection between the physical and 2 llltd ora !íe1tSr t'Place in Fictioilr t' South Atlantic Quarterly , 55 (rg 56), 62, 69. 3 the netaphysÍcal in hurnan experience; maps, journeys, temples, prisons, are al-I used as potent symbols in tracing the progress of the human spirlt. The novel-s considered here have been chosen chiefly because they invite comparlson in this context.

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