This thesis is submitted to Charles Sturt University in accordance with the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Melissa Boyes – Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Folklore in Contemporary Australian Literature: Baba Yaga as guardian and mentor in antipodean narratives November 2019 Supervisors Dr Lachlan Brown Dr Ruth Bacchus 1 Table of Contents Certificate of Authorship .................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. 4 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Gaps in Knowledge and Significance ................................................................................................. 7 Part 1: Creative Artefact ......................................................................................................................... 8 Cellophane .......................................................................................................................................... 8 The Muses of Cellophane ............................................................................................................... 9 Page of Pentacles .......................................................................................................................... 60 The Land of Milk and Honey ...................................................................................................... 119 Part 2: Exegetical Component............................................................................................................. 166 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 167 Myth, Folklore and Fairy Tales .......................................................................................................... 168 The Historical Context of Myth, Folklore and Fairy Tales ............................................................. 168 Recreating Traditional Myth and Folklore ...................................................................................... 170 Folklore and Fairy Tales in Australia ............................................................................................. 172 Indigenous Storytelling and Representation ............................................................................... 172 Non-Indigenous Australian Folklore .......................................................................................... 174 Creative Methodology, Form and Genre ............................................................................................ 181 Death of the Author ........................................................................................................................ 181 The Form of the Novel .................................................................................................................... 185 The New Fairy Tales of Postcolonial Spaces .................................................................................. 187 The Tarot as Folktale Structure ....................................................................................................... 189 Dream – Archetypes of Mythic and Folkloric Traditions ............................................................... 190 Baba Yaga in Literature ...................................................................................................................... 192 Baba Yaga in Traditional Tales ...................................................................................................... 192 Classification................................................................................................................................... 198 Baba Yaga Created From the Australian landscape in Vasilisa the Wise by Kate Forsyth and Lorena Carrington ....................................................................................................................................... 198 Baba Yaga as Guardian of the Tasmanian Bush in ‘Blackaby Road’ by Danielle Wood .............. 203 Baba Yaga as Protector of the Socially Marginalised in ‘By Bone-light’ by Juliet Marillier ........ 214 Baba Yaga as Nature-Witch and Spiritual Guardian in Cellophane ............................................... 219 Other Elements of Myth and Folklore in Cellophane ..................................................................... 222 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 225 References ........................................................................................................................................... 229 2 Certificate of Au1horship I hereby declare that this submission ismy own wort and to the best of my knowledge and befief, understood that it contains no materialpreviously pubfishedor writtenby another person, nor material whieh to a substantialextent has beenaccepted for the award of any other degree or diplomaat Chartes Sturt Universityor any othereducational institution, except wheredue acknowledgementis made in the thesis [or dissertation, as appropriate]. Any contributionmade to theresearch by colleagues withwhom I have worked at ChartesSturt University or elsewhereduring my candidatureis fu[lyacknowledged. I agreethat this thesisbe accessiblefor the purpose of study andresearch in aecordoocewith nom1al conditionsestablished by the Executive Director, Library Services, Chartes SturtUniversity or nominee, for the care, loan and reproduction of thesis, subject to confidentiality provisions asapproved by the University. Name !Melissa Boyes Date '2111012019 3 Acknowledgements I am honoured to be writing on the ancestral lands of the Dhudhuroa people. I acknowledge the first Australians as the traditional custodians of this continent, whose cultures are among the oldest living cultures in human history. I pay my respect to the elders of the Dhudhuroa community past and present. Acknowledgment of Assistance I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Lachlan Brown and Dr Ruth Bacchus, for their guidance and patience. I would also like to thank Avril Lambert and Lachlan Smith for their assistance and attention to detail. Many thanks to Tracie MacVean for the artwork she created for this project. The encouragement given by my family and friends has been appreciated and invaluable. Thank you. 4 Abstract Myth and folklore have for many centuries been a vehicle for people to explain, understand and navigate their societies. Since European settlement in Australia there have been two different and opposing types of folklore: the Indigenous Dreamtime stories and the bush legends of the settlers. However, in recent years several prominent Australian writers are merging traditional old world myth and folklore from Europe and Asia with Australian stories and landscape. This doctoral project consists of two components, both of which explore the use of myth and folklore in contemporary Australian writing. The first is a novel-length creative piece, Cellophane, which focusses on the protagonist’s place in Australian culture and her journey to find a connection to the land and society in which she was born. The story of Cellophane employs various mythological, folkloric and fairy-tale motifs to explore contemporary issues of environmental protection and cultural syncretism in a postcolonial context. The second element of this project is an exegesis which places the creative text in a comparative study of contemporary Australian literature repositioning old world myths, folk tales and fairy tales (particularly those featuring the Slavic nature-witch Baba Yaga) in the Australian landscape. The study is informed by international folklorists such as Jack Zipes and Kevin Paul Smith, theorists Roland Barthes and Max Luthi, and Australian academics specialising in folklore such as Danielle Wood and Rebecca-Anne Do Rozario. The three recent creative publications by Australian writers that will be analysed are ‘The Blackaby Road’ by Danielle Wood, ‘By Bone-light’ by Juliette Marillier and ‘Vasilisa the Wise’ by Kate Forsythe and Lorena Carrington. By including Baba Yaga in their stories, Australian writers are highlighting environmental issues, and drawing attention to cultural attitudes towards older women in our society and the problematic effects of colonisation in the national psyche. 5 Aims and Objectives The primary aim in writing Cellophane is to create a novel that not only immerses the reader in the protagonist’s journey, but also introduces the audience to concepts of connection to country through the use of myth and folklore. This particular kind of creative work aims to situate itself within a folkloric and fairy tale tradition in Australia, while also taking into consideration broader global issues. In the words of Jeanette Winterson ‘I wanted to create an imaginative reality sufficiently at odds with our daily reality to startle us out of it’ (1995, Winterson, p. 188). My objective is to create a significant piece of literature that offers new possibilities for the inclusion of folkloric and fairy tale motifs within a postcolonial landscape. The creative piece is informed and underpinned by folkloric research and comparative studies of three contemporary