The Search for Love and Truth in Shirley Hazzard's Writings

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The Search for Love and Truth in Shirley Hazzard's Writings a-,¡ *-f.-t¡.,| I €.? Ë " ^tf ..) -lo- 'THE GOLDEN THREADI THE SEARCH FOR LOVE AND TRUTH IN SHIRLEY HAZZARDIS WRITTNGS Kathleen M. Twidale, B.À. (Hons. ) A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English, University of Adelaíde February, 1988 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. SUMMARY 1tt. SlATE14ENTS v1. ACKNOW LEDG E MENTS vttl. CHAPTER I In troduc t ion I CHAPTER II 'Candle of Understandíng' Some Light on Shirley Hazzard's Use of Language 24 CHAPTER ÏII The Short Stories 59 CHAPTER IV The Evening of the Hol iday 91 CHAPTER V The Bay of Noon 117 CHAPTER VI The Transit of Venus r52 CONCLUSION 19s a Page No. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 199 NOTES 200 BIBLIOGRAPHY 2r6 l_t_ ITHE GOLDEN THREAD' THE SEARCH FOR LOVE AND TRUTH IN SHTRLEY HAZZARD'S WRIT]NGS SUMMARY This thesis, as its title suggests, wil_1 examine the themes of l-ove and truth in shirley Hazzard's h¡ritings. rt will be argued that aJ-though she views her characters with ironic detachment, presenting love and its effects with a clear-eyed l-ack of sentimentaJ-ity, nevertheless, shirley Hazzardts theme throughout her novels and short stories is that the ability to l-ove is of immense importance in the life of her characters. Though l-ove itsel-f may be transient, through the powers of memory its effects are permanent. Those that have loved 'must always be different'and in, that senser'1ove is eternal'for shirley Hazzard's heroines. The different attitudes of Shirley Hazzard's male and female characters to rove is also investigated and it will be argued that, with few exceptions, l-ove to the men is'but a thing apartr; to the vüomen 'who1e existencef . In this emphasis, Shirley Hazzard refLects the ethos of the period in which her short stories and novels are set and the expectations of her heroines. An important influence on such expectations i s the conditioning of the romantic tradition which is expJ-ored by Shirley Hazzard through her charactersr reactions to literature and art. It will be argued that through Sophie, in The Evening of the Holiduy, and Christian ThraIe, in The Transit of Venus, l_1r_ ShirJ-ey Hazzard shows different responses to literature and its ef fect on 1i fe. Sophie conducts her l-ove af f air with Tancredi according to her o\^¡n prescription for an ideal- romantic 1ove, short-1ived, but 'a thing of beauty' forever in her memory. Christian's'love affair'is even more short-1ived, but lacking in authenticity, since Christian is an extrinsic romantic, perverting the truths of the poets. Às well as examining Shirley Hazzardts penetrating view of love and its effects, this thesis will explore the theme of the search for a spiritual home in Shirley Hazzard's writings' especially in rel-ation to her heroines. Love is equated with place and therefore the divided loyalties of her heroines are of importance. The concern for authenticity which Shirley Hazzard expresses in her non-fiction writings informs her fictional works as well-. It is for this reason that one of her major concerns is the misuse of Ianguage, its manipulation for ulterior motives. Her arguments in Defeat of an ldeal for truth to the ideal-s of the United Nations Organization iharter are apparent in the f ictional- version of her experiences with that Organization in People in Glass Houses. They emerge, too, in The Transit of Venus in her depiction of bureaucracy and 'l-inguistic inhumanity'. One of the principal themes of The Trans i t of Venus is that Itruth has a life of its o\,ID', that it may be driven underground for a time but wí11, eventually, emerge. f n Defeat of an Ideal- Shirley Hazzard argues this same point, using the Dreyfus case as 1V. her example. But it is in The Transit of Venus Èhat both the theme of love and the theme of truth receive Èheir fullest and most complex expression. Shirley Hazzardrs moral vision, as depicted in her' writings, and her emphasis on the truth in dealing with oneself and with the world in general will be investigated in this thesis. v STATEMENT This Èhesis conÈains no material whích has been accepted f or t.he awa rd of any other degree or diploma in any other unÍversityi nor, to the best of my knowledge and bel ief , does i t contain any mat,erial previously published or wrÍtten by another person, except where due reference is made in the text or notes. K. M. TWIDÀLE v]-. I am willing to make this thesis available for Ioan and photocopying if it is accepted for the award of the degree. v1l_ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to Emeritus professor John colmer and Dr. Robert sellick for the cIear, considered and constructive advice they have given during the preparatio^ of this thesis. v111. CHAPTER I TNTRODUCTION fn this introductory chapter it is intended, first, to give a brief background to Shirley Hazzard's career; secondly to consider some of the aspects of her work dealt with by critics to date i Lhirdly, the aims of this particular thesis will be outlined. Born in Australia in 1931, Shirley Hazzatd rdas educated at eueenwood School, Sydney. In Ig47 she went to Hong Kong with her family when her father \¡¡as posted there as Australian Trade Commissioner. In Hong Kong she worked for a time in an office in the British Tntelliqence. She found there people to whom the inner world of literature and art were as relevant and important as to herself, an attitude which she had felt in the Australian society of the thirties and forties had placed her amongst the eccentric. After a sojourn in New Zeal-and, her father was posted to New York. Here, Shirley Hazzard has remained' She is married to biographer and critic, Francis Steegmuller, and they live in New York for part of each year, spending the rest of the year in ItalY. During her early years in New York, from 1952 to 196I, Shirley Hazzard worked in the Secretariat of the United Nations Orga nization - an experience which has provided her with a wealth of knowledge of the workings of bureaucracy and the world of men 1 in high places. The experience has found specifi c expression in two volumes: her critique of t he united Nations entitled Defeat of an Ideal- A Study of the SeIf-Destruction of the United Nation"l and in the fictional version of l-ife in that institution: Peo Ie in Glass Houses.2 At the time of the Suez crisis in 1956, ShirJ-ey Hazzard was posted to ftaly for a year. This wa s to prove immenseJ-y important to her development a s a writer. In Italy she literally 'came to her sensesr. Two years after she went to l-ive in Ttaly, she began to htrite.3 Whilst stil1 working at the United Nations, Shirley Hazzard publi shed several short stories. f n the early sixties she \,vas encouraged by her publisher to devote herself entirely to writing professionall-y, and so left the Secretariat. Since then she has published many short stories in magazines such as The New Yorker. Some of these New Yorker stories, and one originally published in MademoiselJ-e, were colf ected in a volume entitled Cliffs of Fall4 first published in 1963. People in Gl-ass Houses, a coflection of stories on the topic of bureaucratic life based, as already mentioned, on her experience at the United Nations, appeared in 1967. Two short novels, or novell-as, The Evening of the HoI iduy5 and The Bay of Noon6 first publ-ished in 1966 and Ig7O, respectively, \,vere followed in 1980 by a major novel, The Transit of Venu=.7 The Bay of Noon \^/a s nom inated f or the US National Book Award and The Transit of Venus rdas winner of the 1980 US National Book Critics Circfe Award. ShirJ-ey Hazzardt s non-f iction writing includes book reviews and articles on literary criticismi an article entitled rLetter from Australia' published in The New Yorker in 1977¡ articles 2 which relate to her concern at the direction taken by the United Nations Organization; and Defeat of an Ideal, published in 1973. She has also broadcast a series of lectures for the ABC in the Boye r Lecture SeriesB calling them Com ing of Age in Australia. These vùere published by the ABC in 19 85. Her theme f or this series was the changes in Australia in the years since she Ieft New South Wales wi th her f am ily, and the cul-tural growth of Austral-ia during those important years from what Hazzard sees as Australia's adofescence as a nation to its growth to adulthood and an acceptance of the responsibility of the tributary stream to the'mainstreamrof human culture. Tn this typically geographical metaphor Shirley Hazzard encapsulates many of the concerns wh ich occupy her both in the l-ectures, in her non- fiction writing, and in her fiction. One of the most consistent themes in her writing is a commitment to'the universal sense of existence... Ito the] stream of culture and know1edge....' 9 Critics have seen many themes and concerns in Hazzardrs work, from John Col-mer's emphasis on the vagaries of 1ove, the importance of language, and her ironic scrutiny of personal and social- behaviour, to Nina Baym's emphasis on the sel-f-reflexive artifice of her work, and also the importance of fate, discussed by Geoffrey Lehmann, Robert Towers and Delys Bird, among others.
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