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ASPECTS of METAMORPHOSIS in the Fiction of David Malouf

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ASPECTS of METAMORPHOSIS in the Fiction of David Malouf ASPECTS OF METAMORPHOSIS in the fiction of David Malouf Li rtc Cy r` ejr Vivienne Hamilton BA, B.Litt (Hons) Submitted for the Degree of Master of Arts April, 2001 University of Tasmania En sour na 1% vo Zorcfcc,-, Lc-it DOG ,;) . Declaration of Originality I, Vivienne M. Hamilton, am the author of the thesis entitled Aspects of Metamorphosis in the Fiction of David Malouf submitted for the degree of Master of Arts. I declare that the material is original except where due acknowledgement is given, and has not been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma. , Signed ..... 14'14-44-Y6 Date. 5 07 01 Statement of Authority of Access I, Vivienne M. Hamilton, the author of the thesis entitled Aspects of Metamorphosis in the Fiction of David Malouf, submitted for the degree of Master of Arts, agree that it may be made available for loan and limited copying in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. Signed .................. Date 2510 ?hi Acknowledgements Many have offered advice and encouragement along the way but I would like to thank particularly my supervisors: Dr Philip Mead, Dr C.A. Cranston and Dr Narelle Shaw for their contributions at various stages of the process. Special thanks must go to my father who inspired my love of literature and to my mother who always took pride (as only a parent can) in my modest academic achievements. Sadly, she died from cancer in the first year of this work. There are many friends to thank but patience awards should go to: Janet and Lance Patford, Jane and Rick Smith and Lesley Ralph who encouraged and supported me during the difficulties of my thesis journey. 2 Contents Page Acknowledgements 2 Contents 3 Abbreviations 4 Introduction 5 Chapter One Bildungsroman 17 Chapter Two Kiinsderroman 38 Chapter Three Reshaping Ovid 59 Chapter Four Rereading the Australian Landscape 81 Works Cited 105 3 Abbreviations Johnno IL An Imaginary Life FAP Fly Away Peter HHA Harland's Half Acre ES 12 Edmonstone Street RB Remembering Babylon CCC The Conversations at Cur/ow Creek SP A Spirit of Play DS Dream Stuff 4 Introduction Central to David Malouf's fiction is the importance of individual perception and interpretation in the determination of a reality which ultimately must be subjective and relative. Although his narratives include significant changes of place and circumstance it is through characters' psychological and spiritual development that transformation, or metamorphosis, is most apparent. In other words, external changes remain subordinate to the internal ones of individual growth of consciousness and altered perception. Malouf also focuses on transforming readers' perceptions through creating a new mythology. His is a mythology based on imaginative recreation of the past which is then synthesised with the present. It is these aspects of metamorphosis which will direct my analysis of Malouf's novels. Diverse thematic levels in Malouf's fiction afford a variety of critical perspectives. A review of the extensive range of material written about Malouf reveals that three critics dominate the field: Amanda Nettelbeck, Ivor Indyk and Philip Neilsen. Nettelbeck's analysis of Malouf's fiction demonstrates her claim that 'the tendency to look for national definition is [...] being replaced by a more critical concern with the processes and effects of national myth-making.' 1 The significance of language and memory, defining aspects of Malouf's style, form the basis for her detailed study. The value of 'memory' was also intrinsic to the nineteenth-century Romantic vision and indeed Nettelbeck acknowledges a Romantic influence in Malouf's novels: 'Malours writing is imbued with both a romantic aesthetic (in its appeal to enduring universals and natural cycles) and a political consciousness (in its review of cultural history in general and Australia's cultural history in particular).' 2 Despite her claim that his work contains 'contradictions' Nettelbeck asserts that Malouf achieves a perpetual balance or compromise between these two opposing 6 critical perspectives: `Malouf forges a tentative but persevering balance between potentially oppositional ways of viewing and of knowing the world' (iii). Post-Romantic elements in Malouf's fiction are also noted by Philip Neilsen who published a revised edition of his 1990 critical volume Imagined Lives, in 1996. In this analysis of the binary oppositions underlying Malouf's writing, he also discusses the recurring themes of 'a yearning for self-transformation and for wholeness; [and] a post- Romantic deference to Nature and the imagination' which prevail in Malouf's writing (218-9). Ivor Indyk, in David Malouf, provides a detailed analysis of post-Romantic aspects of Malouf's novels which include Malouf's portrayal of 'imagination as "the first principle of creation,' the significance of the organic cycles of nature, and psychological and spiritual self-transformation from fragmentation to wholeness and a sense of continuity (27). While I don't ignore the critical perspective of Nettelbeck which was, in fact, a major source of inspiration for this thesis, my analysis here emphasises the post-Romantic elements of Malouf's construction of individual metamorphoses. Although geographical, temporal and cultural issues play an important role, ultimately, my focus transcends national and contemporary aspects of identity. It is Malouf's fictional representation of the spiritual and emotional stages of life which direct my analysis. These 'stages' are exemplified by relationships with the natural world, experiences of loss and displacement, a coming to terms with one's own mortality and a search for spiritual meaning. It is these moments of inner metamorphosis, common to human development and regardless of culture or era, which create a universal dimension for Malouf's novels. 7 With the exceptions of Johnno and The Conversations at Curlow Creek (Chapter 1), the central relationships explored in this thesis are with characters' sensual, spiritual and imaginative interaction with the natural world rather than their relationships with each other. This is a major point of departure between my approach and that of Indyk. While Indyk does not deny the significance of human interaction with the natural world it is merely one of several influences on human metamorphoses which he explores. Much of his discussion focuses on the effects of social and familial bonds, specifically: father/son relationships, 'understated [.. .1 homosexual romance' between Malouf's characters, and the social power of the feminine in terms of procreation and destruction (7). In contrast my analysis is primarily concerned with Malouf's representation of the broader planes of existential experience and the organic cycles of birth, growth, decay and death that subsume humanity into the world of nature. Furthermore, while Indyk interprets many of the 'primitive unities' in Malouf's work from the sensual dimension, as metaphors for human, often homosexual eroticism, my analysis focuses on the transcendent aspect of spiritual metamorphosis, achieved through this reconnection with primitive origins. At times I draw analogies between Malouf's fiction and Buddhist philosophy but generally the term 'spirituality' in this thesis refers to its broadest sense, transcending specific religious tenets. In order to clarify the thematic focus for this thesis, 'aspects of metamorphosis,' I will explain some of the basic elements informing my concept of metamorphosis as it relates to Malouf's fiction. The concept of metamorphosis or transformation has interested humankind for centuries and much has been written about it from many perspectives. Theories of evolution and transformation have yielded valuable links to the past that have inspired fear and fascination throughout history. Changing form or substance, changing 8 circumstances and changing attitudes, paradoxically remain constant elements of human experience from which we can trace our development. The idea of evolutionary connection between nature, animals and humankind remains a focus for both spiritual and biological arguments. In many pre-industrial societies including the indigenous Australian ones, the ancient Egyptians, and some American Indian tribes like the Zuni and Pawnee, mythology teaches that all life forms are interconnected. In a discussion of myth and folklore Joseph Campbell says: No consistent, clearly separating line between the nature of man and beast, such as we find, for example, in Genesis 1:26-30, was ever drawn in these mythologies [of hunting and agriculture]; for the two were experienced as part of one life which informs all things. (9) These pre-industrial societies did not regard themselves as separate entities but rather they interacted with the landscape and other living species, in a harmonious and ecologically balanced way. Ernst Cassirer, in a discussion of the development of mythical consciousness explains that a literal sense of unity was enhanced by a belief in a magical element of connection: Long before man had knowledge of himself as a separate species [...] he knew himself to be a link in the chain of life as a whole, within which each individual creature and thing is magically connected with the whole, so that a continuous transition, a metamorphosis of one being into another, appears not only as a possible but as necessary, as the 'natural' form of life itself. (Vol 2, 194) In this early world view the differentiation of the I (the subject), from the surrounding environment (the object), involves a gradual process
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