“In the sea but not of it” Rites of passage and liminal spiritual perspectives in the fiction of Tim Winton by Ian Donald Brunton Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (English) Acadia University Spring Convocation 2015 c by Ian Donald Brunton, 2014 i This thesis by Ian Donald Brunton was defended successfully in an oral examination on Monday, 9 September, 2014. The examining committee for the thesis was: Dr John Ball, External Examiner Dr Herb Wyile, Internal Examiner Dr John Eustace, Supervisor Dr Lisa Narbeshuber, Acting Head Dr Glyn Bissix, Chair This thesis is accepted in its present form by the Division of Research and Graduate Studies as satisfying the thesis requirements for the degree Master of Arts (English). ii I, Ian Donald Brunton, grant permission to the University Librarian at Acadia University to reproduce, loan or distribute copies of my thesis in microform, paper or electronic formats on a non-profit basis. I, however, retain the copyright in my thesis. Author Supervisor Date Contents Abstract v Acknowledgements vi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Land’s Edge: Winton’sapproachtoliminality . 2 1.2 Theoriesofliminality........................... 9 1.3 Ad hoc ritesofpassage.......................... 19 2 Short Fiction 25 2.1 “LanternStalk”.............................. 26 2.2 “Wilderness” ............................... 35 2.3 “Laps”................................... 47 3 Cloudstreet 55 3.1 Thehouseasaliminalspace. 56 3.2 RosePickles................................ 63 3.3 QuickLamb................................ 67 3.4 FishLamb................................. 83 3.5 Thehousetransformed .......................... 93 4 Breath 96 iii CONTENTS iv 4.1 Surfingasamasculineriteofpassage . 97 4.2 Surfingasaliminalspiritualexperience . .... 109 5 Conclusion 118 Abstract This thesis examines liminal conditions in the fiction of Western Australian author Tim Winton in light of Victor Turner’s theory of rites of passage, Mircea Eliade’s analysis of religion, and Homi K. Bhabha’s and Manuel Aguirre’s abstract theories of liminality. For Winton’s characters, liminal spaces, which most frequently reflect the Western Australian landscape, enable ad hoc rites of passage and spiritual experiences. Proceeding from Winton’s early short fiction through his novels Cloudstreet and Breath, this thesis traces the development of Winton’s views of liminal spaces, specifically their capacity for rites of passage and spiritual development that support meaningful transformation and negotiation of identity. Over the course of his career, Winton’s fiction displays an increasing pessimism about the possibility of achieving such transformation, due to the lack of communal ritual and spiritual practices to give shape to rites of passage. v Acknowledgements I wish to express my appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor, John Eustace, for his advice, ecouragement, and patience; to the faculty of Acadia University’s Department of English and Theatre for their enthusiasm and support; to the staff of Vaughan Memorial Library, for tracking down innumerable and sometimes quite distant resources; to Zanne Handley and Ian Armstrong, for lengthy, rambling, inspiring conversations; to my fellow graduate students in the English department for moral support and mutual commiseration; to my parents, for their love and support; and to my sun and stars, Mike Butler, for his love, for his unbounded energy and unflagging support, and for keeping me going. vi Chapter 1 Introduction Throughout his career, Tim Winton has focused his writing on his native Western Australia, and especially on the liminal space of its coastline—the narrow margin where land and sea meet. His first novel, An Open Swimmer (1982), and his penultimate, Breath (2008), take place almost entirely on the beach;1 Shallows (1985) and Dirt Music (2001), and the short story collection The Turning (2004) are set in coastal towns with a heavy emphasis on interaction with the beach and sea (fishing, swimming, surfing, beachcombing). The meeting of land and water also figures prominently in other short stories and in his novel Cloudstreet (1991). While the prominence of shorelines arises from the geography in which Winton locates his fiction, it also has significant implications. The beach represents a threshold between land and sea, a border-space that is neither truly land nor truly sea, yet influenced by both. It is a limen, an in-between space. In such spaces, rites of passage allow transitions between life stages and transformation and negotiation of identity. In Winton’s fiction, characters must typically improvise such rites of passage. When they do so successfully, their experience reflects Winton’s perceptions of the liminal as transformative and profoundly spiritual. As this study 1. Winton’s most recent book, Eyrie, was published when the bulk of this thesis had already been written. 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 2 will show, however, over the course of his writing career, Winton’s fiction suggests a shift of focus from successful ad hoc rites of passage to failed ones and an increasing pessimism about the potential of liminal spaces for forming a meaningingful or cohesive Australian identity. 1.1 Land’s Edge: Winton’s approach to liminality Winton has brought his preoccupation with the liminal nature of the Western Australian coastline to the foreground in his book of essays, Land’s Edge (1993). The entire book consists of reflections on his lifelong relationship with beaches and the sea and land on either side of them. He describes himself as “a ‘littoralist’, someone who picks over things at the edges.”2 What he “picks over,” in Land’s Edge and in his other work, is the intimate relationship between Western Australians and their still-wild coast.3 To Winton, the littoral is not merely the meeting of land and sea. As he demonstrates in Land’s Edge, he views it as symbolic not only of how Australians relate to their geography but also of the fundamental character of Australians, and Western Australians in particular. He suggests that the nature of the coastline shapes the Western Australian character throughout life and exerts a powerful influence even in its absence. While Winton refers frequently to “the sea,” he acknowledges that this signifies not the sea per se but that which borders the coast: “We are not a sea people by way of being great mariners, but more a coastal people, content on the edge of things.”4 It is the sea in relation to its margin that is important to the Australian character. “We are a race of veranda dwellers,” Winton writes, quoting Philip 2. Tim Winton, Land’s Edge (Sydney: MacMillan, 1993), 45. 3. Ibid., 45, 46. 4. Ibid., 21. CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 3 Drew: “The veranda is an interval, a space, where life is improvised. The beach, in Australia, is the landscape equivalent of the veranda, a veranda at the edge of the continent.”5 As the veranda is both part of the house and also outside, so is the beach part of both land and sea, essentially an extended threshold between the two. Drew elaborates: “Land and sea run together and the beach becomes a contested zone, neither land nor sea, but a kind of sea-land. Its mixed nature and plurality strikes us as enormously exciting.”6 Winton emphasises the importance of the “interval” or “space” of the beach as a limen to the Western Australian culture because [n]owhere else on the continent is the sense of being trapped between sea and desert so strong...In many places along this vast and lonely coastline the beach is the only margin between them. From the sea you look directly upon red desert and from the wilderness there is the steely shimmer of the Indian Ocean. There are roos on the beach and shells out on the plain.7 Both sea and land are constantly present within each other where they meet at the shoreline, rendering the beach neither wholly one nor wholly the other and therefore a threshold, a liminal space, just as the veranda is neither inside nor outside—and yet both at the same time. Winton describes the Western Australian coastline as a place “where the margins blur,” making clear definitions ambiguous.8 Each chapter of Land’s Edge begins with an anecdote that occurs on the beach or within sight of it, whether from land or water, and the events Winton narrates are often transformative, or occasions of great joy—or terror. Winton comments 5. Winton, Land’s Edge, 21; Philip Drew, Veranda: Embracing Place (Pymble, NSW: Angus & Robertson, 1992), 84. 6. Drew, Veranda, 85. 7. Winton, Land’s Edge, 22. 8. Tim Winton, “Eleanor Wachtel with Tim Winton,” By Eleanor Wachtel, Malahat Review, no. 121 (January 1997): 64. CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 4 that on days when he cannot go to the beach, “the smell of rotting seagrass and the blast of the Fremantle Doctor” remind him of the sea’s constant presence even inland.9 He also applies the liminal character of the beach to human interaction with both the desert and the sea. He acknowledges that “we see ourselves as outback types,” but “we [always] head back to the coastal cities...Guiltily we spend the rest of our time living on the water or manoevering our way ruthlessly toward it. The desert is a spiritual place, we vaguely understand, and the sea the mere playground of our hedonism.”10 He suggests that Australians shy away from significant engagement with the desert beyond camping and “our funny little pilgrimages” because, of the two, “the sea is more forthcoming; its miracles and wonders are occasionally more palpable, however inexplicable they be.” While Winton admits the sea’s danger and antipathy toward humans, he hints at a profound ambivalence, even anxiety, toward the desert that makes it more difficult for Australians to embrace than the bounty and possibility of “a vista that moves, rolls, surges, twists, rears up and changes from minute to minute.”11 Throughout Land’s Edge, a second concern emerges from Winton’s reflections on the miracles and wonders of the sea and the coastline, and that is his preoccupation with spirituality.