• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

DREAMLAND A novel and MODES OF TEXTUAL DIVISION IN THE POST-2000 NOVEL Critical Thesis Des Mohan Thesis submitted for the qualification of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of East Anglia, Department of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing, 31 October 2020. © This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. WORDCOUNT: 103,998 1 Abstract Dreamland and ‘Modes of Textual Division in the Post-2000 Novel’ Des Mohan 2020 This thesis comprises two parts. The novel, Dreamland, is the story of seventeen- year-old Joe Duffy, who leaves his family home in Liverpool in search of his older brother who has gone missing in London. The themes, techniques, and findings examined in the critical thesis have informed the composition of the novel: in particular, the creative work exploits the capacity of techniques of narrative division to interact with linguistic content in the representation of the protagonist’s consciousness. The second part is a critical study that investigates the form and function of a mode of textual division in a group of twenty-first-century novels whose linguistic content is presented in short narrative sections divided by horizontal margins of white space; it is a technique that imparts an unconventional ‘gappy’ appearance to the pages. This gappy mode of textual division in certain contemporary novels is historicized in two preliminary chapters: the first chapter surveys formative pre-novelistic influences on conventions of narrative division; the second chapter follows the course and career of modes of narrative division in novelistic practice. The primary focus of the thesis is contained in the third chapter where case studies are made of four twenty-first-century novels that share the distinctive gappy format. By a close reading of these works, the thesis analyses how their modes of textual division interact with the linguistic content of the novels to generate a range of interpretative possibilities for their narratives. 2 Access Condition and Agreement Each deposit in UEA Digital Repository is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, and duplication or sale of all or part of any of the Data Collections is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for your research use or for educational purposes in electronic or print form. You must obtain permission from the copyright holder, usually the author, for any other use. Exceptions only apply where a deposit may be explicitly provided under a stated licence, such as a Creative Commons licence or Open Government licence. Electronic or print copies may not be offered, whether for sale or otherwise to anyone, unless explicitly stated under a Creative Commons or Open Government license. Unauthorised reproduction, editing or reformatting for resale purposes is explicitly prohibited (except where approved by the copyright holder themselves) and UEA reserves the right to take immediate ‘take down’ action on behalf of the copyright and/or rights holder if this Access condition of the UEA Digital Repository is breached. Any material in this database has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the material may be published without proper acknowledgement. Table of Contents Page Title Page 1 Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Part I: Novel 5 Dreamland Preface to the Critical Thesis 311 Part II: Critical Thesis 313 Modes of Textual Division in the Post-2000 Novel Introduction 314 Chapter 1: The pre-novelistic evolution of conventions of narrative division 321 • Consultation 322 • Attention span 324 • Episodes 326 • Rhetoric 329 Chapter 2: Novelistic conventions of narrative division 1700 – 2000 333 • The Part 333 • The Chapter 336 • The Paragraph 343 Chapter 3: Case studies of 4 post-2000 ‘gappy’ novels 350 • Introduction 350 • The Absent Therapist, Will Eaves 352 • Cove, Cynan Jones 365 • Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill 377 • Martin John, Anakana Schofield 391 • Summative 401 Bibliography 412 3 4 Part I: Novel Dreamland 5 6 Bang on two my apron’s hung and my greatcoat’s on and I’m out of the butcher’s, peggin it through the indoor streets, weaving and dodging Saturday shoppers, doubling it down the escalator. I stop at the sliding doors to pull on my wool hat, and I head out, chin dipped against the pelting cold rain, jogging towards the Parade where Liam’s girlfriend works. I pause inside the chemist’s door, hands on my knees, heart thumping in my ears, breath escaping in bunches. Thin music, the faint clean smell of TCP. Veronica’s up at the counter. She turns away from some old biddy in a plastic rain hood and passes a slip of paper up to Mr Hadden – he’s leaning through the dispensary hatch, giving me daggers over the top of his glasses. I straighten. Veronica says something to the chemist and he grants her a grim nod and she comes out from behind the counter. She walks towards me, taking me in from my wool hat to my boots. She shakes her head. The trace of a smile. You’re like a drowned rat, Joe! I glance down. Silvery beads of rain trail from the tips of my hair, there’s dark patches of wet on the pink carpet around my feet. Blue-arsed fly more like, I tell her. Veronica’s brows hitch, she shushes me, casts a worried glance over her shoulder. Mr Hadden’s got his back to us as he peers along a shelf of bottles and stacked pill-boxes. Thought you’d be at home, Veronica says, getting everything set up. I should be, I tell her, but Mr Simm has only just let me finish work. Anyway, I go, did Liam call you last night? Veronica smiles. He phoned from some London boozer, said it was quick drink with the lads after finishing the Camden contract. 7 I do a comedy double-take. One quick drink? Our Liam? I know, Veronica says, laughing. I told him to take it easy, to get himself back up here in one piece. He said he was all set. You didn’t tell him about the party, did you? Course not, Joe. OK, good. Have you still got much to do? I take a breath before I speak. Too right I have. I’ve got to go to the offie with Barry … then cart the ale home … then set up the front room. I’m counting off my wet fingers. And I haven’t even bought his friggin card yet. I clasp my thumb. And, I need to have a bath, coz I’m friggin rank with meat juice. Veronica laughs. She folds her arms and cocks her head to one side. So, what you doin here then? I just thought, I go. I pause, coz what I thought is raising heat in my neck. I swallow. I just thought, that if Liam’s told you his train gets in around six … and if I’ve said to everyone to be at the house for eight … then if you’re there for seven that would give the two of you some … I stop myself coz I’m gabbling fluent shite. Some time for a catch-up you mean? A smile twitches at the corners of her mouth. I look away, my eyes lingering on a hanging display of hairbrushes. You know something, Joe? I reckon you’re more excited about him coming home than I am. Veronica laughs, but it’s not a taking the piss kind of laugh. 8 It’s only four stops so I stand at the back, gripping the pole on the platform by the opening. The rain’s stopped, there’s sudden sunlight on the wet pavement, a run of privets sparkles in front of the memorial gardens. Veronica came to the house last Tuesday evening. I was out, at footy training. When I got home Mum said, We’ve a visitor on Saturday, and I just went, Who? – coz I didn’t wanna jinx it. Mum goes, Well, who would you think? I could see she was trying to trap a smile. I started flinging questions at her. No, Joseph, I don’t know how long he’s staying. No, I don’t know if he’s back for good. Mum sighed. Who knows anything where that brother of yours is concerned? She said that his girl had only told her that Liam would be getting a train up from London on Saturday, and that he should be at the house by six. Wake up Dolly Daydreams. I snap out of my thoughts. The conductor’s staring at me, his eyebrows bunched, a finger scratching at one of his fuzzy ginger sideburns. Scholar, is it? No, I tell him, and I dig out the full fare. You used to be though, didn’t you? he goes. I recognize him now. He works on the 159 to St Augustine’s. I tell him I left a year ago last Easter and he goes, Oh, right, and he pinches off the green ticket. Truth is, I do still get the 159 to the school, every Thursday night, for Cocker’s English class. But I’m not gunna start explaining all that to the clippie. The street-ends wind by, our local shops fronting the blocks. The Jawbone Tavern on the corner. Aziz’s newsagents. Keble Wines where I’ll come later with Barry.

Load more

  417

Copy Link