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Love Texts: the Lacanian Gaze in Epistolary Literature in the 21St Century

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Love Texts: the Lacanian Gaze in Epistolary Literature in the 21St Century Love texts: The Lacanian gaze in epistolary literature in the 21st century By Erin Maree O’Dwyer, BA/LLB (Hons) Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2014 University of Technology Sydney 1 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP I certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as fully acknowledged within the text. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. Signature of Student: Date: 2 Acknowledgements Many people have supported me in the completion of this thesis. Thanks go to my supervisor John Dale for patient and generous guidance. To my UTS support crew - Helen Vatsikopolous, Sonya Voumard and Amy Simpson-Deeks. To my dear friends Alexia Maddox, Linda McSweeny, Tanya Mitchell and Juliet Willetts, and my sisters Siobhan O'Dwyer and Shannon O'Dwyer, for brainstorming, debriefing, draft reading and technical support. To Alan Gold for writing mentorship; Rhonda Nohra for providing a Sydney bolt-holt; and Juliet Richardson for careful proofreading. To my parents Robyn-Ann and Tim O’Dwyer for gifting their time in the final months of editing; and to my mother and my uncle, John Gericke, for allowing such generous access to my grandfather's personal letters. It has been an honour to get to know my grandfather better, and to connect him to his great grandsons through the power of the word. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 7 1.1 My dearest… 7 1.2 Research design and methodology 14 1.3 A Lacanian framework 18 2. A brief history of epistolary literature 31 2.1 An overview of epistolary scholarship 31 2.2 Jane Austen and the epistolary novel 34 2.3 Evolution of epistolary literature 38 2.4 Key epistolary works of the 18th and 19th centuries 49 2.5 Key epistolary works of the 20th century 57 2.6 Key characteristics of epistolary literature 62 3. To whom the letter belongs: Lacan and the epistolary tradition 77 3.1 Lacan, the Freudian 77 3.2 Lacan, the linguist 83 3.3 Lacan and the faux phallus: key concepts 85 3.4 Lacan and the gaze 90 3.5 The epistolary Lacan 97 3.6 The Lacanian gaze in epistolary literature 102 4. Case study analysis: Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001) 107 5. Case study analysis – We Need To Talk About Kevin (2003) 135 6. Case study analysis: In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (2010) 153 7. Discussion and conclusion: The love letter in literature in the 21st century 173 8. Reflection: In My Grandfather’s House 191 References 285 4 Abstract The purloined letter has become a symbol of seduction, confession and betrayal. This thesis explores the origins of the epistolary novel, its enduring influence and its place in contemporary literature. It asks: If letters do not exist, will epistolary novels exist? And how long will contemporary authors continue to find inspiration from an old-fashioned form? Three case studies are considered: Ian McEwan’s Atonement (2001), Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin (2003) and Damon Galgut’s In A Strange Room (2010). Each novel draws on the epistolary tradition, exploring universal themes of absence, exile, loneliness and grief through the eyes of the bereaved lover who writes. The seductive power of epistolary literature can be situated within Jacques Lacan’s gaze theory. The gaze sets up an inherent secret, revealing the truth only in the final dénouement. It anticipates the voyeuristic reader, compelling him or her to watch. A creative work accompanies this thesis. In My Grandfather’s House draws on all the usual epistolary themes: love, exile, trial and self-identity. The primary source is a bundle of love letters written from my grandfather to my grandmother, in 1941. These are contained within the structure of three letters – one to my grandfather, one to a former lover and one to my young sons. A reflective chapter considers the gaze in my own work, and the circumstances in which ‘found’ letters should be read and published. 5 1. Introduction 1.1 My dearest… The day after my grandfather died, we found a pile of yellowing love letters. The letters were stuffed in a sandwich bag, on top of a pile of old newspapers, presumably ready to be thrown out. Ironically, his death preserved them. And what my grandfather planned to discard became to me a precious gift. His love letters begin as every love letter should – ‘‘My dearest . .’’ – and are addressed to the woman who became his wife, my grandmother. They span the year of 1941. It was the year before they married and a time when my grandfather was a frequent traveller on what were among the first regular commercial flights between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. In eloquent ramblings home to his sweetheart Norma, Max Gericke remarks on the social fabric of the three cities at that time. Though an accountant, he was a lover of language, history and poetry. His letters reveal keen observation and an elegant prose. He writes of Sydney: Practically everyone tries to get a view of the harbour. You’d be amazed at the positions some homes are built on. No soil for gardens. And the space for the clothes line has to be cut from rock. Land is a fabulous price too. In Melbourne he sees women employed as tram conductors for the first time. In Newcastle, Wollongong, Ballarat and Geelong, he reports on the birth of suburbia. He also professes his love for my grandmother and his dreams for their shared 7 future. The same musings about truth and beauty he shared with her are the same values he held until the day he died at 96. Max Gericke did not keep a diary and so his letter writing captured his thoughts. They preserve the private contemplations and self-reflections that occupied a bachelor of his era moving into married life. They provide a remarkable insight into a man I knew well, unlocking for me the parts of him than were private and off- limits. The young man is present in the old man I knew. But in death, remarkably, I have come to know him better. Letters seem all the more important as the death knell rings over the handwritten letter. Collections of letters are regularly published, devoured by readers who want to know more about the people who shaped their times, just as they were indeed shaped by them1. In a recent exhibition at the Australian War Memorial, it was the original letters that breathed life into the exhibits of wedding dresses, bomber jackets and photographs2. Letters written by the poet Judith Wright to her philosopher husband Jack McKinney, and published after her death by their daughter, provide a remarkable insight into her character and her non-conforming bohemian lifestyle (Clarke & McKinney 2006). A recent memoir by the stepdaughter of writer Elizabeth Jolley draws on letters to piece together the truth of her childhood (Swingler 2012). Novelist Salman Rushdie recently donated a 1 See for example Reid, C. (ed) 2007, The Letters of Ted Hughes, Faber and Faber, London ; Day, B. (ed) 2007, The Letters of Noel Coward, Knopf, New York; and Speck, C. 2011, Heysen to Heysen: Selected Letters of Hans Heysen and Nora Heysen, National Library of Australia, Canberra. See also revelations about “unpublished manuscripts” in letters written by the reclusive author JD Salinger: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/glimpses-of-salinger-tucked-inside-catcher-in-the- rye/ (accessed June 27, 2012). And a new collection of Ernest Hemingway’s letters to be published: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/10/hemingway-201110 (accessed June 27, 2012). 2Australian War Memorial, Of Love and War exhibition http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/loveandwar (accessed June 27, 2012). 8 number of personal computers containing extensive email correspondence, as well as private journals and notebooks detailing his creative process, to Emory University in the US3. How will the great figures of this generation be perceived after their death, if not through their personal correspondence? And in what form will this century’s leaders and citizens leave their personal legacy? Handwritten letters are already slipping from collective memory, a mode of communication made redundant by technology. In some ways, email is good news for the art of writing. We are living, more and more, in a text-based society. But few emails and text messages are saved, just as telegrams were not saved. Meanwhile email is falling out of fashion, in favour of text messaging, instant messaging and online social networking. As cultural theorist Dominic Pettman observes: Anything with vowels is considered too gushy and gauche. Teenagers are being ‘creeped out’ by anyone trying to express themselves in an extended, articulate way (O'Dwyer 2008). Online communities keep us in touch in real time in ways inconceivable only a few years ago. And though it is through the written word – a changing, morphing, elliptical one – that we communicate, the loss of the handwritten letter as a means of personal communication is symptomatic of changes in our society, and how we live and relate. The loss of letters may be a loss of insight into the past. 3 www.news.emory.edu/tags/topic/salman_rushdie/index.html (accessed January 14, 2013).
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