Plainsong Or Polyphony?

Plainsong or Polyphony? Australian Award‐Winning Novels of the 1990s for Adolescent Readers. Heather Voskuyl Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2008 Certificate of Authorship / Originality I certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of the requirements for a degree. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received in my research and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information resources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. Signature of Candidate _____________________________________________________ i Acknowledgements I would like to thank two people for the contributions they have made to this thesis, my supervisor Rosemary Ross Johnston for challenging me and encouraging me to persist, and my husband Hans for his patience and support. I would also like to acknowledge the support and encouragement given to me by my employer, Queenwood School for Girls. ii Contents: Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Voice 6 Theoretical Perspectives 10 Adolescent Readers 22 Australian YA Novels 28 Addressing a Dear Child or a Becoming Adult? 35 Chapter 2: Who Speaks? 40 Omniscient Narrators 43 Multiple Narrators 48 Reliable Adolescent Narrator/Protagonists 54 Unreliable Adolescent Narrator/Protagonists 58 An Eclectic Mix? 60 Dangerous Spaces in Between 70 Chapter 3: Who Speaks to Whom? 76 Narratees 77 Subordinate Adolescent Characters – Friends and Foes 92 Chapter 4: Freedom to Speak? 102 Acquiescent Protagonists – Muted Voices 107 Rebellious Protagonists – Speaking Out 123 Vulnerable Protagonists 128 Silenced Protagonists 134 iii Chapter 5: Who Speaks When and Where? 147 Narrative Sequence 150 Period 156 Place 163 Urban Australia 172 Elsewhere 176 Chapter 6: Hailing Adolescent Readers 181 Heroic Adolescent Narrators 189 Deadly Unna?, The Gathering, Pagan’s Vows and Pagan’s Scribe Fallible Adolescent Narrators 200 Looking for Alibrandi and Angel’s Gate Chapter 7: Challenging Adolescent Readers 215 Multiple Narrators 215 Came Back to Show You I Could Fly and Eye to Eye Extradiegetic Narrators 224 The House Guest, Foxspell and A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove Chapter 8: Confronting Adolescent Readers 241 Patrolling Boundaries or Extending Boundaries? 244 Night Train 250 Strange Objects 258 Sleeping Dogs 264 Chapter 9: Plainsong or Polyphony? 278 iv Appendix A: Australian Awards for Novels for Older Children and Adolescents 1990‐1999 291 Appendix B: YALSA Fact Sheet 294 Appendix C: ALA Best Books for Young Adults 296 Policies and Procedures Appendix D: Sample 300 Appendix E: Bibliography of Sample Awards; Adaptations and Translations; Reviews; Criticism and Commentary 301 Appendix F: Glossary 316 Bibliography of Works Cited 323 v Abstract Plainsong or Polyphony? Australian Award‐Winning Novels of the 1990s for Adolescent Readers. Using a musical metaphor of plainsong (to allude to monophonic sameness) and polyphony (to allude to multiphonic difference) this thesis seeks evidence of similarity (plainsong) or difference (polyphony). The texts considered are judged to have both literary merit and to meet the particular needs of Australian adolescent readers. Adult concerns about the suitability of particular Young Adult (YA) novels imply that there is an agreed archetype for this genre; an implication that this thesis explores using variety of critical perspectives, chiefly Narrative Theory, Reader Theory, Althusser’s concept of the hail and the work of Pecheux. Bakhtin (1981) applied the musical metaphor of polyphony to describe the novel as a genre in which an author orchestrates its themes through ‘the social diversity of speech types’ and ‘the differing individual voices that flourish under such conditions’ (p. 263). This study considers both polyphony and its opposite, plainsong, in its inquiry into two aspects of individual authorial voices. The first relates to the authors’ representations of adolescence as portrayed through their protagonist[s]; the second to the authors’ beliefs about their adolescent readers as reflected in the various ways each author tries to attract and engage their audience. This study finds that whilst patterns of similarity exist in the texts, these patterns shift when the novels are viewed from different critical perspectives. This thesis demonstrates that whilst the authors appear to share similar ideas about adolescence, they have different perceptions about what they can and cannot do in novels addressed to adolescent readers. vi Chapter One: Introduction This thesis investigates two aspects of the award winning Australian novels of the 1990s for adolescent readers, their explicit portrayals of adolescent voices and their implicit calls to adolescent readers. Each of these novels has been judged to have both literary merit and to meet the particular needs in content and style of adolescent readers. To what extent do the structure and style of these narratives suggest that the authors hold, or appear to hold, similar beliefs about their readers? Are the representations of adolescence they depict the same or different and do they address a readership with similar or different levels of sophistication and emotional development? If analysis reveals that these texts reiterate a monophonic address, suggesting that these authors seem to hold similar beliefs about their readers, the award‐winning YA novels of the 1990s can be likened to plainsong. If however, the voices of adolescent characters and calls to readers convey a rich texture of perhaps discordant voices, this sample can be described as polyphonic. If so, it can be argued that the acclamation accorded these texts also recognises diversity in the interests and abilities of Australian adolescent readers. Voice is a significant aspect of all texts but particularly YA texts. McCallum aligns the notion of voice in a novel with an author’s representation of ideology or beliefs. She suggests that authors of novels addressed to adolescent readers can encourage their readers to refuse a passive subject position by incorporating diversity in their narrative techniques and voices. Authors who use a range of narrative techniques and voices are able to convey diversity in their representations of social and ideological beliefs, Bakhtin’s notion of polyphony. McCallum argues that authors who create this diversity ‘potentially construct a multiplicity of implied reader subject positions’ (1999, p. 259), enabling rather 1 than controlling the readers. This study seeks to discern whether such polyphony is evident as a characteristic across a sample of texts rather than in an individual text, although a single text considered here might itself be polyphonic. The depictions of adolescent voices in the novels considered in this study reflect not only the authors’ beliefs about their readers, but also the judges’ beliefs about the interests, maturity and abilities of Australian adolescent readers. Authors structure their novels to communicate a tale that they believe is both relevant to the readers’ interests and suited to their abilities. Authors’ beliefs about their readers are revealed in the first few pages of the novel, through the ways they attempt to hail readers. An author’s call or hail (the term will be explicated a little later) to readers indicates both the sort of novel that has been written and how it should be read. Figuratively, in texts that are deemed to address adolescent readers, authors construct adolescent readers by shaping their call with the intention of engaging their attention. There is a clear relationship between an author’s beliefs and the notion of ideology, a system of beliefs. This relationship is particularly significant in the critical assessment of YA literature: ‘YA fiction … allows the protagonist to describe events and convey perceptions, feelings and emotions from a highly subjective point of view which is constructed by the author (and accepted by the author’s culture) as an ideology of adolescence’ (Johnston 2001, p. 426). As the novels considered in this study were judged the best Australian novels written in the 1990s for readers aged 13‐18, it can be argued that they reflect a culturally sanctioned ideology of Australian adolescence. Stevens reminds us that ideology need not be intentional because it reflects beliefs and assumptions of which these authors (and these judges) may be unaware (1992, p. 9). Unexamined beliefs and assumptions may be more pervasive than an ideology that is consciously applied. Prince argues that an author inevitably attributes to readers ‘certain qualities, faculties and inclinations according to his opinion of 2 men in general (or in particular) and according to the obligations he feels should be respected’ (in Onega & Landa 1996, p. 191). The adolescent readers of this sample of texts have been attributed with qualities of sophistication and emotional development that have been socially endorsed, although some of the texts considered in this study are regarded as controversial, particularly Hartnett’s Sleeping Dogs. Whilst some of the texts considered in this study have won multiple awards, international as well as Australian, the specific criteria for determining their inclusion in this study are that they have won either the Australian Children’s Book of the Year for Older Readers Award or the Victorian Premier’s Award for Young Adult Fiction. Both of these awards recognise literary merit in texts written by Australian

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