BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE BUSH: SUBURBIA IN THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN NOVEL by Nathanael David O'Reilly A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Dr. Gwen Tarbox, Advisor Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan June 2008 UMI Number: 3316930 Copyright 2008 by O'Reilly, Nathanael David All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3316930 Copyright 2008 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway PO Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 THE GRADUATE COLLEGE WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN Date. May 22, 2008 WE HEREBY APPROVE THE DISSERTATION SUBMITTED BY Nathanael David O'Reilly ENTITLED Between the City and the Bush: Suburbia in the Contemporary Australian Novel AS PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy English \aA?y^ (Department) English (Program) Allen Webb, Ph.D. Dissertation Review Committee Member Todd Kuchta, Ph.D. Dissertation Review Committee Member Nicholas Birns, Ph.D. Dissertation Review Committee Member APPROVED 9t+i Date QtMU Z.%,%£>0$ Dean of The Graduate College Copyright by Nathanael David O'Reilly 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my deepest appreciation to my dissertation committee: Dr. Gwen Tarbox, Dr. Allen Webb and Dr. Todd Kuchta, and my outside reader, Dr. Nicholas Birns of The New School. Dr. Gwen Tarbox deserves special thanks for taking a special interest in me, beginning with my arrival at WMU as an M. A. student in 2002. Her advice, support and advocacy have been unparalleled. Without her help, I would not have obtained the assistantships, fellowships, awards, publications, teaching experiences and employment that I have been so fortunate to enjoy, nor would I have developed confidence in my professional abilities. I wish to express my appreciation to Dr. Allen Webb and Dr. Todd Kuchta for the fascinating classes they taught on the novel and postcolonial literature, respectively, and for the many conversations that taught me so much about postcolonial literature and pushed me to further develop my ideas. I'd like to thank Dr. Nicholas Birns for being the first editor of an academic journal to publish my work and for continuing to provide advice, opportunities, advocacy and friendship, and for the members of the American Association of Australian Literary Studies for their support, advice and friendship during a mostly solitary task. At WMU, I wish to thank J.D. Dolan for giving me the opportunity to introduce and interview Peter Carey; Dr. Lisa Minnick for teaching me to appreciate and enjoy linguistics, assisting me with an article that has been accepted for publication, and helping me on the job market; Dr. Jon Adams for allowing me to conduct a teaching practicum with him and invaluable ii Acknowledgements-continued support and assistance on the job market; Dr. Nic Witschi for a fascinating class on American Modernism and the gift of The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature, and Bethlynn Sanders for six years of generous assistance with a variety of administrative tasks and issues in the Department of English. I express my sincere thanks to The Graduate College at Western Michigan University for awarding me a Dissertation Completion Fellowship, which allowed me to devote the last academic year solely to my research and writing. Their financial support has provided me with much-appreciated time and security. I'd like to thank the students in the three courses on Australian Literature that I taught at Western Michigan University and Albion College; their insights and enthusiasm helped me to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of Australian literature. I am in the debt of Dr. Jim Castonguay at Sacred Heart University, who generously lent me a laptop for the 2007-2008 academic year free of charge, making it easy for me to work anywhere, anytime. My parents, Paul and Moira O'Reilly, have my deepest gratitude for instilling in me a passion for literature and education, supporting my academic pursuits both emotionally and financially, and for sending books and articles from Australia. My best mate, Sean Scarisbrick, has provided over seventeen years of friendship on three continents and constantly supported my intellectual pursuits. My discussions with him and his comments on drafts of my work have been invaluable. My deepest thanks go to my wife, Dr. Tricia Jenkins, for nine wonderful years of marriage, constant emotional and financial support, putting up with my workaholic tendencies, reading drafts of my iii Acknowledgements - Continued work, setting the bar high, and always believing in my abilities. Finally, I wish to thank my daughter, Celeste Jenkins-O'Reilly, for bringing a joy into my life that I had not known I could experience, for making me appreciate the beauty of life itself, for countless laughs and smiles, and most importantly, for reminding me daily that there are far more important things in life than a doctoral dissertation. Nathanael David O'Reilly iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii CHAPTER I. AUSTRALIA, SUBURBIA AND LITERATURE 1 Suburbia in British and American Literature 2 Definitions of Terms 9 The Development of Australian Suburbia 10 The Anti-Suburban Tradition in Australian Culture 19 The Anti-Suburban Tradition in Australian Literature and Literary Criticism 27 Thesis, Scope and Significance 32 II. PATRICK WHITE'S RIDERS IN THE CHARIOT (1961): AN ANTI- SUBURBAN NOVEL? 36 White's Reputation and Critical Reception 38 "The Prodigal Son" and White's Life in Suburbia 42 Riders in the Chariot 46 Miss Hare, Nature and the Legacy of Colonialism 49 Mrs. Jolley and Mrs. Flack: "Evil" Guardians of Suburban Values.... 52 Mrs. Godbold: The Immigrant Saint 59 Mordecai Himmelfarb: The Immigrant in Suburbia 62 The Rosetrees: Victims of Assimilation? 65 The Role of the (Indigenous) Artist in Society 68 The Mock-Crucifixion of Himmelfarb 74 v Table of Contents—continued CHAPTER The Destruction of Xanadu 78 Is Riders in the Chariot Anti-Suburban? 80 III. PATRICK WHITE'S THE SOLID MANDALA (1966): SEVEN DECADES IN SUBURBIA 84 Mrs. Poulter and Mrs. Dun: Representative Suburban Housewives? 86 Waldo: The Immigrant "Artist" in Suburbia 94 Arthur: The Saint of Suburbia 105 Mr. and Mrs. Brown and Their House in the Suburbs 113 Suburban Immigrants and Others: The Feinsteins and the Chinese.... 120 Portrayals of Sarsaparilla's Infrastructure 123 Conclusion: The SolidMandala is Not an Anti-Suburban Novel 125 IV. ESTABLISHING AND PERPETUATING THE ANTI-SUBURBAN TRADITION IN THE AUSTRALIAN NOVEL: GEORGE JOHNSTON'S MY BROTHER JACK (1964), DAVID MALOUF'S JOHNNO (1975) AND TIM WTNTON'S CLOUDSTREET (1991) 128 My Brother Jack: Establishing the Anti-Suburban Tradition in Australian Fiction 131 Johnno: Perpetuating the Anti-Suburban Tradition 159 Cloudsireet. Anti-Suburbanism, Indigenous Australians and the Struggle for Belonging 171 VI Table of Contents—-continued CHAPTER V. A NEW GENERATION PERPETUATES THE ANTI-SUBURBAN TRADITION: MELISSA LUCASHENKO'S STEAM PIGS (1997) AND A.L. MCCANN'S SUBTOPIA (2005) 190 Drugs, Booze, Violence and Indigenous Identity: Suburbia in Melissa Lucashenko's Steam Pigs 190 Subtopia: Suburbia, Radicalism, Terrorism, and Expatriation 226 VI. REJECTING THE ANTI-SUBURBAN TRADITION AND CREATING SUBURBAN FANTASIES: GERALD MURNANE'S A LIFETIME ON CLOUDS (1976) AND LANDSCAPE WITH LANDSCAPE (1985) 252 A Lifetime on Clouds: Suburban Adolescent Fantasies 257 Landscape with Landscape: Imagining, Traversing and Investigating Suburbia 284 VII. TAKING SUBURBIA SERIOUSLY: PETER CAREY'S BLISS (1981) AND THE TAX INSPECTOR (1991) 319 Bliss: Life and Death in Mt. Pleasant 321 The Tax Inspector: Exposing Suburban Secrets 354 VIII. CONCLUSION 381 WORKS CITED 397 Vll CHAPTER ONE AUSTRALIA, SUBURBIA AND LITERATURE Australia's most important national narratives, such as the stories of Ned Kelly, Burke and Wills, and Gallipoli, take place in the bush, the outback, and overseas. Graeme Turner contends in National Fictions that the country, usually the bush or the outback, is preferred "as the authentic location for the distinctive Australian experience" (26). However, Australia has been one of the most suburban societies in the world, rather than a predominantly rural society, since the mid-nineteenth-century, decades before the six British colonies on the Australian continent and the adjacent island of Tasmania federated to become a nation in 1901 (Davison, "Australia" 60). In his classic study of Australian society, The Lucky Country, Donald Home claims that Australia "may have been the first suburban nation" (29). Likewise, Tim Rowse, author of the seminal article "Heaven and a Hill's Hoist: Australian Critics on Suburbia," claims that Australia "has been suburban since the 1870s and 1880s" (3). Despite the fact that the vast majority of Australians live in suburbia, Australian