'The Snake in the Rock' Meso-Physical Journeys

‘The Snake in the Rock’ and Meso-physical Journeys: Landscape and Transformation in Cate Kennedy’s The World Beneath, Tim Winton’s Dirt Music, Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and ‘The Snake in the Rock’ By Fiona Britton 19009094 (BA University of Western Australia 1993) Statement of Presentation This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Western Australia, School of Humanities, English and Cultural Studies, 2015 Novel Abstract: ‘The Snake in the Rock’ ‘The Snake in the Rock’ is a multi-focal novel told in a realist style. The narrative follows Felix Fabin’s journey to Sydney in search of personal restitution following the death of his father. Felix is a divorced English medical writer. His father Jozef Fabin was a Polish war orphan from WWII, transported from Germany to London by the Red Cross at the end of the war. Through the description of Felix and Jozef’s encounters in Australia the story argues strongly for the place of stimulus, challenge and personal connection in personal recovery. Both father and son separately undergo constructive transformations in Australia. These transformations come about through both personal connections and through being strongly affected by places — in particular, they are strongly drawn to elements of the Australian natural landscape. The story describes Lena, a 29 year old art historian and failed artist who lives in Bondi; Yasir, an Afghani homeless asylum seeker who is sleeping rough in the caves below Lena’s flat; and Daniel, the elderly owner of a successful Paddington art gallery. These characters share a common background of loss through intergenerational trauma, war or displacement and events in their lives intersect with events in the lives of Felix and Jozef. When Felix’s story moves from London to the vivid landscape of the beach suburbs of Sydney’s east and Pittwater to Sydney’s north, the stories of Lena, Daniel and Yasir connect with his and Felix moves, at last, towards an acceptance of the damage of the past. ii Dissertation Abstract: Meso-physical Journeys: Landscape and Transformation in Cate Kennedy’s The World Beneath, Tim Winton’s Dirt Music, Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and ‘The Snake in the Rock’ Cate Kennedy’s The World Beneath, Tim Winton’s Dirt Music, Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and the draft novel that accompanies this dissertation, ‘The Snake in the Rock’ belong to a group of contemporary Australian fiction texts that portray meso-physical journeys — that is, journeys made by characters through Australian ‘natural landscapes’. These novels adopt the narrative strategy of placing characters within Australian bush landscapes in order to stimulate personal change. In these texts, characters make significant journeys to or through a natural landscape and their physical journeys precipitate psychological or spiritual ones. These meso-physical journeys enable release and transformation and result in metanoia, a change of a distinctly spiritual or psychological nature, involving the revision of previously held ideas. Nature causes a confrontational or transforming encounter, enabling a new way of seeing oneself. This in turn enables a release from, acknowledgement of or acceptance of a troubled past. In these contemporary Australian stories, the conceptual renderings of and narrative approaches to place, nature and landscape iii are distinctive and the landscape is a complex agent in the process of character change. In emphasising the role of landscape in character transformation, these texts contain an echo of contemporary critical re-readings of colonial settler narratives (Bonyhady, 2000); and of ecocritical interrogations of cultural perceptions of landscape and nature, in which the representation of natural landscapes are a central concern (Glotfelty and Fromm, 1996). They also rework older literary ideas concerning the transformative power of nature, drawing upon, particularly, the views of nature held by the European Romantic writers (Blanning, 2010). iv Candidate’s Declaration This thesis does not contain work that I have published, nor work under review for publication. Statement of Candidate Contribution I confirm that this thesis is my own independent research and all research has been carried out without the contribution of any other party. v Acknowledgements I’m very grateful to my supervisor Brenda Walker for the help and advice she provided during the creation and refinement of this manuscript. Thanks also to Paul, Marlin, Henry and Shar Jones. vi Table of Contents Novel Abstract: ‘The Snake in the Rock’ .................................................................... ii Dissertation Abstract: Meso-physical Journeys: Landscape and Transformation in Cate Kennedy’s The World Beneath, Tim Winton’s Dirt Music, Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and ‘The Snake in the Rock’ .......... iii Candidate’s Declaration .................................................................................................. v Statement of Candidate Contribution ......................................................................... v Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... vi The Snake in the Rock .............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 .............................................................................................................................. 2 Chapter 2 .............................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................... 39 Chapter 6 ........................................................................................................................... 52 Chapter 7 ........................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 8 ........................................................................................................................... 62 Chapter 9 ........................................................................................................................... 68 Chapter 10 ......................................................................................................................... 73 Chapter 11 ......................................................................................................................... 79 Chapter 12 ......................................................................................................................... 86 Chapter 13 ......................................................................................................................... 94 Chapter 14 ....................................................................................................................... 104 Chapter 15 ....................................................................................................................... 115 Chapter 16 ....................................................................................................................... 122 Chapter 17 ....................................................................................................................... 128 Chapter 18 ....................................................................................................................... 132 Chapter 19 ....................................................................................................................... 136 Chapter 20 ....................................................................................................................... 139 Chapter 21 ....................................................................................................................... 142 Chapter 22 ....................................................................................................................... 146 Chapter 23 ....................................................................................................................... 150 Chapter 24 ....................................................................................................................... 155 Chapter 25 ....................................................................................................................... 162 Chapter 26 ....................................................................................................................... 176 Chapter 27 ....................................................................................................................... 181 Chapter 28 ....................................................................................................................... 188 Chapter 29 ....................................................................................................................... 198 Chapter 30 ....................................................................................................................... 209 Chapter 31 ....................................................................................................................... 218 Chapter

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