The Transnational-Uncanny: Strange Territories in Contemporary Novels
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016 University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2014 The transnational-uncanny: strange territories in contemporary novels Tara Goedjen University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. A court may impose penalties and award damages in relation to offences and infringements relating to copyright material. Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong. Recommended Citation Goedjen, Tara, The transnational-uncanny: strange territories in contemporary novels, thesis, School of the Arts, English and Media, University of Wollongong, 2014. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/4148 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] THE TRANSNATIONAL-UNCANNY: STRANGE TERRITORIES IN CONTEMPORARY NOVELS (Volume I: Thesis) A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY from UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG by TARA GOEDJEN, B.S., M.F.A. SCHOOL OF THE ARTS, ENGLISH, AND MEDIA 2014 CERTIFICATION I, Tara Goedjen, declare that this thesis, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Tara Goedjen 1 March 2014 The Transnational-Uncanny Goedjen i ABSTRACT This thesis seeks to develop a new conceptual territory in literature—the “transnational-uncanny”—based on the convergence of two border-crossing realms: transnationalism and the uncanny. To contextualize the convergent space of the transnational-uncanny, I primarily draw from Jahan Ramazani’s work on elegiac transnationalism in A Transnational Poetics; Nicholas Royle’s examination of uncanny themes in The Uncanny; and Michael Jackson’s explorations of alterity in The Politics of Storytelling: Violence, Transgression, and Intersubjectivity as theoretical underpinnings. My thesis then establishes how both transnationalism and the uncanny inherently challenge the divide between the known and the unknown, and therefore lead to encounters with the “strangeness” of the “other”, particularly in narrative portrayals of death. In transnational-uncanny moments of death and mourning, the lived life and the worldview(s) of the self may be called into question, allowing for the potential to transform notions of self and other, and facilitate negotiations of alterity. My theoretical framework is then used to analyze two contemporary Australian novels: Merlinda Bobis’s Fish-Hair Woman and Gail Jones’s Sixty Lights. Although the approaches of these authors vary, there is an uncanny overlap in their investigations of geographical, cultural, and psychical border-crossings through lived and imagined experience, resulting in texts that convey expansive landscapes/mindscapes imbued with critical explorations of self/other. Textual analysis of transnational-uncanny spaces during elegiac moments in Fish-Hair Woman and Sixty Lights reveals the potentiality to reconfigure arbitrations of otherness and transform notions of being-in-the-world. The conceptual territory of the transnational-uncanny, as examined in this thesis, opens up new ways of encountering, and navigating, “strange” otherness in narratives. It thereby cultivates a border-crossing consciousness that connects self- and-other while acknowledging our differences. The Transnational-Uncanny Goedjen ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank first and foremost my talented supervisor, Dr. Merlinda Bobis, for her steadfast attention throughout the writing of this thesis, and for teaching me rigor. I’d also like to thank the entire staff of the University of Wollongong’s Creative Arts Faculty for the generous stipend and international scholarship during my years of study. My deepest gratitude to everyone who has read (and read again) parts of my thesis and novel, especially my parents, Pat and Tom Goedjen, my brothers, Brent and Steven, and the one-and-only Caroline Graham, Peter Durston, Lauren Choplin, Luke Southworth, Tim Croft, Paul Shirley, Kristin and David Irwin, Nancy Winifred Pullin, Bronwyn Lang, Sally Evans, Ben Hession, Catherine Cole, Joshua Lobb, and my incredible agent Catherine Drayton. Even a few encouraging words go a long way (and long conversations even further), so thank you-thank you, Michael Curley, Hank Spangler, Shady Cosgrove, Sean Ottley, Margaret and Mike Lenth, Chris Kerr, Jim Smede, Anna Mozjeko, Courtney Parker, Katie O’Neill, Megan McElderry, Paolo Ledde, Rosemary Lewey, and Danielle Evans. For inspiring me along the road, I’d also like to thank Alissa Nutting, Jane Sandor, Carl Peterson, Sarah Blackman, Nick Parker, Will Sharpe, Brian Buckbee, B.J. Hollars, Andrew Farkas, Jeremy Allan Hawkins, David Zimmerman, and Willy Vlautin. And last but not least, thanks to Leni Shilton, Martin Harrison, Jane Messer, Thomas Bristow, Chrissy Howe, Angela Williams, Tom Williams, Oliver Hsu, and all of “Team Momentum”—Mark Harding, Patrick Lenton, Laurie Ormond, and Joel Naoum. To my writing teachers during the early years, especially Steve Pett, Kate Bernheimer, Wendy Rawlings, and Michael Martone, and to all of the editors who have picked up my work, with very special thanks to William Pierce of AGNI. Because novels need space to be written, I’d also like to thank those behind the gift(s) of Varuna, the Writer’s House and the “Red Door” cabin in Wombeyan, Australia. And lastly, sincere thanks to all of my friends and family, and to all of the readers and writers in the world who keep the pages turning—you know who you are. The Transnational-Uncanny Goedjen iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATION ...................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ iv Chapter One ......................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Scope and Limitations ................................................................................................... 3 Definition of Terms ....................................................................................................... 3 MethodoloGy ................................................................................................................ 6 Relationship of Key Novels to Transnationalism and the Uncanny ................................ 8 Outline of Chapters ..................................................................................................... 10 Chapter Two ....................................................................................................... 12 Theoretical Framework: .................................................................................... 12 From the “Transnational” and “The Uncanny” to Their Convergence ............ 12 Narrative as Journey into the Unknown ...................................................................... 12 Alterity: Self and “Other”ness ..................................................................................... 15 Transnationalism ........................................................................................................ 18 A Transnational Poetics .............................................................................................. 21 The Uncanny ............................................................................................................... 25 Etymology and Definition of “Uncanny” ...................................................................... 27 NeiGhborinG Literary Modes: The Fantastic and The Uncanny ..................................... 30 “CrossinG Over”: Shared Qualities of The Transnational-Uncanny ............................... 33 The Transnational-Uncanny: Homely and Unhomely Economics ................................. 35