Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 1-1-1999 Man makes man : a study of uplifting and upbuilding in the novels of Joseph Furphy Raymond Driehuis Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Driehuis, R. (1999). Man makes man : a study of uplifting and upbuilding in the novels of Joseph Furphy. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1226 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1226 Edith Cowan University 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 authorize 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: 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. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. USE OF THESIS The Use of Thesis statement is not included in this version of the thesis. ' i.~,,,. , .....,. ..... .,.~ "'"-'" ~, ·~.---...- ~,.,.._._..~ ...........y ••.._ - -- I Man Makes Man: A Study of Uplifting and Upbuilding in the Novels of Joseph Furphy. by Raymond Driehuis, B.A. (Hons). A Thesis submitted for the Award of Doctor of Philosophy in English Studies. at the Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences. Mt. Lawley Campus, Edith Cowan University. Perth, Western Australia. Date of Submission: 28th of May, 1999. Abstract. In a letter to Kate Baker, circa November 1910, Furphy wrote, '[b)ut ain't it anomalous that the erratic G.H [Grant Hervey], the saintly Dr. Strong, and the perverse T.C. [Tom Collins] should be working strenuously toward the same goal, namely, the uplifting and upbulldtng qfAustralia' (in Barnes and Hoffmann, eds, 1995:259. My italics). This thesis is an investigation of the ideas of uplifting and upbutldtng, and their relevance to Tom Collins and his concerns. The reason for Furphy waiting so long to lay bare his designs can only be speculated. Rather than accepting the general critical stance that Collins is unreliable, and that Furphy meticulously sets out to expose his flaws, this thesis argues that this is not the case. Since he distanced himself publicly from his own novels, refusing to have authorship credited to his name, Furphy wanted his readers to respond to Collins not as his literary creation, but as a fully developed and self-reliant identity capable of setting an example of what it means to uplift and upbuild a national community. The ideas of uplifting and upbuilding are simple enough to comprehend. Yet a proper appreciation of their scope in the novels requires a careful consideration of the historical context which links Collins to many issues of the 1880s. The chief issue is the textual construction of an Australian identity vis-a-vis an Anglo-Australian identity, and the influence literature has on the common mind. Because of his involvement with uplifting, upbuilding and self­ reliance, there is a complexity to Tom Collins that is the result of his being the implied author, controlling the selection of characters and their narratives, as well as his own self-image, in the novels. The thesis argues that Collins' representation of "Collins", and other characters in the Riverina, is designed to represent the "right" qualities for an Australian character or type, which is consistent with uplifting and upbuilding. For these reasons, the novels are considered as Collins' strategic response to the contemporary representations of life in terms of their value to the search for meaning, and to ways of seeing and responding to the good of an Australian life. iii. Indeed, the character of Tom Collins is very much concerned with personal and communal well-being in an environment of colonial loyalties, rivalry and division, and a landscape often categorized as exotically cruel or dangerous. Because this is so, Collins is concerned with the value of education, with the value of notable Western thinkers and artists, and with the shifting of ignorance for better judgment. He is also concerned with the benefits of democracy and the democratic temper over aristocracy and its emphasis on class and station. Collins is quite a modem thinker, deeply concerned with actions and consequences in art and life. He is a modern thinker because he believes, as Paine, Emerson and Whitman do, that the idea of natural rights is the cornerstone of moral progress for civilization, but only if men and women accept and practise the civil rights that necessarily come with the pursuit of liberty, fraternity, equality and happiness. iv. Declaration. I certify that this thesis does not, to the best of my knowledge and belief: {i) incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any institution of higher education; {ii) contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text; or {iii) contain any defamatory material. Signed: Date: .:i.."5 ... 0~ - l C\C\C\ V. Acknowledaements. I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, Professor Andrew Taylor and Dr. Jill Durey, for their continued support and critical appraisal of this work. Their skills and knowledge are, Without a doubt, of great value to the academic community and the community at large. I also feel the need to extend the self-same gratitude to Dr. Alan Tapper. Although he was not my supervisor, he has left a permanent mark on my thought, namely that Wisdom is the goal of any inquily. I would equally like to thank the staff at the library on the Mt. Lawley campus for their excellent services, as well as their many diplomatic reminders regarding overdue books. I think many Will agree that living With a postgraduate student engaged in research is not an easy one, and no amount of words Will ever express the love I feel for my Wife, Jo-Anne. Her patience is a godsend. On this personal note, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my recently deceased dog, Zeus, for his companionship and frequent demand for walks. Without you, my friend, the hurdles would have been greater than they were. And finally, I offer this work to the spirit and Wisdom of Joseph Furphy: half bushman, half bookworm, full genius. vi. Table of Contents. Introduction: remarks on unreliable narration and the direction of the thesis (1). 1. Man and Nation: towards an understanding of the ideas of uplifting and upbuilding (7). a 1.1. Furphy's 1880s: a searchfor meaning in the public domain(7). a 1.2. A Philosophe: some historical and epistemological orientations qfJoseph Furphy (24). a 1.3. The Penguin and the Man-0'-War Hawk: a parable on opportunism(51). a 1 .4. The Gospel According to Collins: uplifting and upbuilding through the idea of rights (80). 2. Man and Art: the ethics of representing Australia for Australia (95). a 2.1. The Normative Theory of Art: creativity, culture and value(95). a 2.2. Social Architecture and the Theory of the Controlling Alternatives (124). a 2.3. On Seeing Tom Collins as Implied Author and Hero (151). a 2.4. Uplifting and Upbuilding the Antipodes: concluding remarks onAuthorship (177). 3. Man and Identity: new worlds, guardianship and the antipodean type (187). a 3.1. Reading and Weaving a Nation: morality and the looselyfederated yams (187). a 3.2. Half Bushman and Half Bookworm: identity, well­ being and the guardian-type (209). a 3.3. The Coming Australian Debate: landscape, gender and the Australienne (240). a 3.4. Men, Women and Marriage: the imagined community through the Australian romance (261). 4. Conclusion: remarks on observant reading for future studies on Furphy (296). Bibliography (301). vii. Introduction: remarks on unreliable narration and the direction of the thesis. Since this thesis investigates what Furphy meant by the nationalist ideas of uplifting and upbuilding, one of the key aims is to tease out the complexity of Furphy's creation, Tom Collins. During my research, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the traditional view that Tom Collins is simply an unreliable narrator, and that Furphy intervenes in the novels quite regularly in order to foreground the blindness of his narrator to the actual state of affairs in the "world" around him. Simply put, Furphy shows his readers that Tom Collins is an inept chronicler of life by providing the clues which Collins does not notice during his observations, despite the fact that these clues occur rtght before his eyes. Collins is an observer, but he is not observant, and by aligning ourselves with Furphy we are privy to Collins' inadequacies and mistakes, making the necessary connections Collins fails to make. There are two important points underpinning this view, namely Furphy's 1903 review of the novel and Wayne Booth's idea of the unreliable narrator. In the last paragraph of the review, Furphy states that '[u]nderneath this obvious dislocation of anything resembling continuous narrative run several undercurrents of plot, manifest to the reader, though ostensibly unnoticed by the author' (1969:130).