Any Belgian! Reading the City: Creating a Narrative from Urban
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Reading the City: Creating a Narrative From Urban Experiences! ! by! ! Donald Hiscock! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy! ! November 2013! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "2 ! ! UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON! ! ABSTRACT! ! FACULTY OF HUMANITIES! Creative Writing! ! Doctor of Philosophy! ! ANY BELGIAN! READING THE CITY: CREATING A NARRATIVE FROM URBAN EXPERIENCES! by Donald Hiscock! ! The critical reflection at the start of this thesis outlines the ideas that have informed the production of my novel Any Belgian. The novel explores how cities offer creative possibilities for a writer, particularly in suggesting locations and for influencing the development of character and plot. The critical reflection also surveys the work of writers and critics who have commented on the nature of cities as palimpsests, and as places that serve as an emotional refuge. It also reflects on the creative processes involved in constructing my novel, detailing the decisions made about its form. The use of images in the novel is also discussed and a justification is made for their use as a device to deliberately involve the reader in the construction of meaning. References to cinema and other visual arts are prominent in the novel, and there is a reflection on how they are used as an effective way to express the thoughts of the narrator in his attempts to make sense of a set of multi-layered past experiences. It was also important to undertake fieldwork for research in the writing of the novel. This process is described and related to the writings of critics such as Walter Benjamin and other writers who have recorded their walks in urban locations. The narrative for Any Belgian works on several levels and the complexity of its layers are addressed in the conclusion to the thesis. What has been produced is a novel that attempts to raise questions about the possibility of accurately recording urban experiences, especially when a narrator is confronted with the challenge of describing the permanently shifting relationship between recollections and the city locations which give rise to those recollections. "3 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "4 ! ! List of Contents! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! Author’s Declaration !!!!!!!! 7! Acknowledgements!!!!!!!! 9! Synopsis !!!!!!!!!! 11! Critical Reflection!!!!!!!!! 13! ! Background !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 15! ! 1. An account of the research process!!!!!17! !2. The starting point!!!!!!!!33! !3. Who is Eric Leers?! 39 !4. Ophelia’s Crisis!!!!!!!!43! ! 5. And the other characters? !!!!!!45 ! ! 6. Fieldwork!!!!!!!!!47! ! 7. Images and words!!!!!!!53! !8. Conclusion!!!!!!!!57! Any Belgian!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 59! Bibliography!! 217 !!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "5 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "6 Academic Thesis: Declaration Of Authorship ! I, Donald Hiscock, declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research.! ! ANY BELGIAN - READING THE CITY: CREATING A NARRATIVE FROM URBAN EXPERIENCES! ! I confirm that:! 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University;! ! 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated;! ! 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed;! ! 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work;! ! 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help;! ! 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself;! ! 7. Either none of this work has been published before submission, or parts of this work have been published as: [please list references below]:! ! Signed:! ! Date: !! "7 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "8 ! Acknowledgements! ! I would like to thank my supervisor, Rebecca Smith for our many meetings which have resulted in the final version of my thesis. She made many valuable suggestions and wrote excellent comments on work that I submitted to her during the course of the research. She was always prompt in her replies to my emails and offered the best possible combination of praise and criticism. Her encouragement and persistent questioning have undoubtedly resulted in a novel which feels polished and ready for publication.! ! I would also like to thank my advisor, Professor Peter Middleton, for his comments at an early stage of the critical reflection. His advice helped me to give a clear focus to the work and ensured that I was working to a high academic standard.! ! I am particularly grateful for the support of my wife, Alison, who has been a critical reader of my work and who has offered constant encouragement. My son, Hugh, has also provided a critical input and has suggested important further reading. It has been a pleasure to undertake fieldwork with him and my other son, Alasdair. Both of them have helped me to critically interpret the cities we found ourselves wandering through. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "9 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "10 ! Synopsis of Any Belgian! ! ! ! An unnamed narrator is spending a month alone on a Scottish island at the holiday home of his friend Bill, a magazine editor. He is recovering from the traumatic events of the preceding summer by writing a journal of his experiences since his wife mysteriously left him. He gives a selective account of their past and the possible reasons for her departure.! ! At the start of the journal the narrator, a travel writer and film biographer, describes getting a train to London and seeing himself and his wife, Ophelia, as they were twenty-three years ago. He is on his way to meet Bill to be commissioned for a travel article on the European film locations of Eric Leers, a director the narrator is preparing a monograph on for the British Film Institute.! ! The narrator is intrigued by the apparitions of himself and Ophelia but becomes obsessed by them after he experiences further sightings in Paris while researching the Eric Leers article. Later sightings include Ophelia’s cousin, Klaus, about whom the narrator reveals a bitter resentment. He is now taken back to 1988 and gives an account of the time he travelled around Europe as a student with Ophelia and the impact Klaus had on their trip.! ! The narrator reveals how Klaus drew attention to the wide gulf in social backgrounds between himself and Ophelia. Both she and her cousin are descended from European aristocracy and the narrator feels that Klaus deliberately flaunted his superior pedigree and took every opportunity on their trip to undermine him. He is also both fascinated and repelled by Klaus’s physical frailty.! ! The sightings of the three of them continue in Amsterdam. It is here that the narrator feels that glimpses of the past are giving him a clue to his wife’s recent disappearance. He remembers how his increasing resentment towards Klaus caused him to assault him. Klaus died shortly afterwards in an unconnected accident while convalescing from the assault. The narrator begins to assume that Ophelia had probably never got over the death of her cousin and that she might possibly hold her husband responsible.! ! "11 Before he leaves Amsterdam the narrator has a meeting arranged for him with Eric Leers who is filming in the south of the country. When the narrator meets him it transpires that Leers is also troubled by the departure of his wife, a famous actor. The film director wants him to place a specially written article about his own wife in a newspaper in an attempt to win her back. The narrator agrees. ! ! On his way to Berlin the narrator reflects on how he might be able to change what happened in the past and somehow win back Ophelia. He is in the German capital to research a Leers film set before the fall of the Wall. Further sightings of himself, Ophelia and Klaus drive him on to intervene in the past and attempt to avert the moment when he delivered the blow to Klaus that may have resulted in his death.! ! Eric Leers arrives in Berlin to guide the narrator on his walking tour of the locations of one of his films. However, the apparitions become so vivid that the narrator has to seize