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    <title>UTas ePrints - Deformity as Device in the Twentieth-Century Australian Novel</title>
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    <meta content="Cranston, C.A." name="eprints.creators_name" />
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<meta content="This study is based on several assumptions: it recognises that the person who is deformed has an existence both in the world and in the novel; it recognises that in both the world and the novel the deformed-being has borne a negative
stigma. It also recognises that a literature reflects its culture, as must the characters  who  exist  within  that  literature.  As  Harry  Heseltine  states succinctly: 'No writer invents his metaphors ex  nihilo; in the long run he finds them  somewhere in  the range of  possibility that  his culture makes available  to  him'.  This  study  asks:  can  that  most  marginalised  of  all characters, the deformed-being, provide any revelations about the self, about the novel, the reader of the novel, and the culture within which all exist?  The answer in each case is an unequivocal yes. Each chapter is devoted to a particular character in a major Australian novel; comparisons are made with other literary works, Australian and non- Australian. The individual chapters reveal the metaphors and symbolism attached to the character's particular deformity, and demonstrate how the deformed body informs the body of the text. The whole study presents an overall picture of  deformity as  a fairly consistent and  an  often-utilised metaphor. Chapter One provides a general survey of deformity as a metaphor. Chapter  Two  looks  at  Louis  Stone's  Jonah   (1911),  in   which   the hunchbacked  larrikin  character  is  a  post-colonial  interpretation  of  the traditionally conjoined outcast states, deformity and criminality. In Chapter Three  the  dwarf Jackie in  Ruth  Park's  Swords  and  Crowns  and  Rings (1977) is seen as a metaphor for non-conformity during a time when Australia was signalling a resistance to the Old-World moulding. Chapter Four is also concerned with the post-colonial identity as revealed through the dwarf and half-caste Billy Kwan  in  C.  J.  Koch's The  Year of  Living  Dangerously (1978); it questions an identity that is 'imposed', whether at a national or individual level. In Chapter Five the relationship of the hunchbacked dwarf Rhoda Courtney with  her adopted brother, the  artist Duffield, in Patrick White's  The  Vivisector  (1970) places  deformity  in  the  tradition  of  the kunstlerroman.  In Chapter Six, Koch's The Doubleman (1985) is shown to combine elements of the  kunstlerroman while raising questions about the post-colonial identity through the dualities arising out of the doppelganger: spiritual, bodily, and cultural displacement are all focussed by the device of Richard Miller's lameness. Chapter Seven moves from deformity that is congenital or disease-originated, to disability or deformity that is human- caused (either by negligence or intervention), thus allowing a discussion of the importance of the etiology of deformity as a device: in Thea Astley's The Acolyte  (1972) Jack Holberg's blindness is caused by  fly-strike.  Chapter Eight examines the use of terror evoked through archetypal evolution of the lame crone Hester Harper in Elizabeth Jolley's The Well (1985). In Chapter Nine  the  crypto-dwarf Arthur  Blackberry  in  James  McQueenls Hook's Mountain  (1982) is portrayed with  the accompanying baggage of dwarf mythology; his implicit demise raises questions about our responses towards the deformed. Chapter Ten is a literary history of eugenics, as seen primarily through Eleanor Dark's Prelude to Christopher (1934) and Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children (1940). The conclusion discusses the initial, problems of dealing with a taboo topic, along with reasons for excluding autobiographicaltreatments of deformity, biographical portrayals, war novels, and children's literature. Finally, Leslie Fiedler's comment that deformity is the reigning metaphor  of our  age is  shown  to  be  particularly apt  in  an Australian context.
" name="eprints.abstract" />
<meta content="1991-01" name="eprints.date" />
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<meta content="This study is based on several assumptions: it recognises that the person who is deformed has an existence both in the world and in the novel; it recognises that in both the world and the novel the deformed-being has borne a negative
stigma. It also recognises that a literature reflects its culture, as must the characters  who  exist  within  that  literature.  As  Harry  Heseltine  states succinctly: 'No writer invents his metaphors ex  nihilo; in the long run he finds them  somewhere in  the range of  possibility that  his culture makes available  to  him'.  This  study  asks:  can  that  most  marginalised  of  all characters, the deformed-being, provide any revelations about the self, about the novel, the reader of the novel, and the culture within which all exist?  The answer in each case is an unequivocal yes. Each chapter is devoted to a particular character in a major Australian novel; comparisons are made with other literary works, Australian and non- Australian. The individual chapters reveal the metaphors and symbolism attached to the character's particular deformity, and demonstrate how the deformed body informs the body of the text. The whole study presents an overall picture of  deformity as  a fairly consistent and  an  often-utilised metaphor. Chapter One provides a general survey of deformity as a metaphor. Chapter  Two  looks  at  Louis  Stone's  Jonah   (1911),  in   which   the hunchbacked  larrikin  character  is  a  post-colonial  interpretation  of  the traditionally conjoined outcast states, deformity and criminality. In Chapter Three  the  dwarf Jackie in  Ruth  Park's  Swords  and  Crowns  and  Rings (1977) is seen as a metaphor for non-conformity during a time when Australia was signalling a resistance to the Old-World moulding. Chapter Four is also concerned with the post-colonial identity as revealed through the dwarf and half-caste Billy Kwan  in  C.  J.  Koch's The  Year of  Living  Dangerously (1978); it questions an identity that is 'imposed', whether at a national or individual level. In Chapter Five the relationship of the hunchbacked dwarf Rhoda Courtney with  her adopted brother, the  artist Duffield, in Patrick White's  The  Vivisector  (1970) places  deformity  in  the  tradition  of  the kunstlerroman.  In Chapter Six, Koch's The Doubleman (1985) is shown to combine elements of the  kunstlerroman while raising questions about the post-colonial identity through the dualities arising out of the doppelganger: spiritual, bodily, and cultural displacement are all focussed by the device of Richard Miller's lameness. Chapter Seven moves from deformity that is congenital or disease-originated, to disability or deformity that is human- caused (either by negligence or intervention), thus allowing a discussion of the importance of the etiology of deformity as a device: in Thea Astley's The Acolyte  (1972) Jack Holberg's blindness is caused by  fly-strike.  Chapter Eight examines the use of terror evoked through archetypal evolution of the lame crone Hester Harper in Elizabeth Jolley's The Well (1985). In Chapter Nine  the  crypto-dwarf Arthur  Blackberry  in  James  McQueenls Hook's Mountain  (1982) is portrayed with  the accompanying baggage of dwarf mythology; his implicit demise raises questions about our responses towards the deformed. Chapter Ten is a literary history of eugenics, as seen primarily through Eleanor Dark's Prelude to Christopher (1934) and Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children (1940). The conclusion discusses the initial, problems of dealing with a taboo topic, along with reasons for excluding autobiographicaltreatments of deformity, biographical portrayals, war novels, and children's literature. Finally, Leslie Fiedler's comment that deformity is the reigning metaphor  of our  age is  shown  to  be  particularly apt  in  an Australian context.
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    <h1 class="ep_tm_pagetitle">Deformity as Device in the Twentieth-Century Australian Novel</h1>
    <p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><span class="person_name">Cranston, C.A.</span> (1991) <xhtml:em>Deformity as Device in the Twentieth-Century Australian Novel.</xhtml:em> PhD thesis, University of Tasmania.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"></p><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1789' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/1/01Front.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1789' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1789"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/thumbnails/1/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/1/01Front.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Front Matter)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />839Kb</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1790' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/2/02Chapter1.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1790' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1790"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/thumbnails/2/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/2/02Chapter1.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Chapter 1)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />1365Kb</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1791' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/3/03Chapter2.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1791' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1791"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/thumbnails/3/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/3/03Chapter2.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Chapter 2)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />1151Kb</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1792' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/4/04Chapter3.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1792' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1792"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/thumbnails/4/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/4/04Chapter3.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Chapter 3)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />942Kb</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1793' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/5/05Chapter4.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1793' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1793"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/thumbnails/5/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/5/05Chapter4.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Chapter 4)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />2294Kb</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1794' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/6/06Chapter5.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1794' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1794"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/thumbnails/6/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/6/06Chapter5.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Chapter 5)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />1028Kb</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1795' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/7/07Chapter6-7.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1795' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1795"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/thumbnails/7/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/7/07Chapter6-7.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Chapters 6 and 7)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />1645Kb</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1796' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/8/08Chapter8-9.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1796' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1796"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/thumbnails/8/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/8/08Chapter8-9.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Chapters 8 and 9)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />1672Kb</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a onmouseover="EPJS_ShowPreview( event, 'doc_preview_1797' );" href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/9/09Chapter10Onwards.pdf" onmouseout="EPJS_HidePreview( event, 'doc_preview_1797' );"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a><div class="ep_preview" id="doc_preview_1797"><table><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/thumbnails/9/preview.png" class="ep_preview_image" border="0" /><div class="ep_preview_title">Preview</div></td></tr></table></div></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1393/9/09Chapter10Onwards.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF (Chapter 10 onwards)</span></a> - Requires a PDF viewer<br />1965Kb</td></tr></table><div class="not_ep_block"><h2>Abstract</h2><p style="padding-bottom: 16px; text-align: left; margin: 1em auto 0em auto">This study is based on several assumptions: it recognises that the person who is deformed has an existence both in the world and in the novel; it recognises that in both the world and the novel the deformed-being has borne a negative&#13;
stigma. It also recognises that a literature reflects its culture, as must the characters  who  exist  within  that  literature.  As  Harry  Heseltine  states succinctly: 'No writer invents his metaphors ex  nihilo; in the long run he finds them  somewhere in  the range of  possibility that  his culture makes available  to  him'.  This  study  asks:  can  that  most  marginalised  of  all characters, the deformed-being, provide any revelations about the self, about the novel, the reader of the novel, and the culture within which all exist?  The answer in each case is an unequivocal yes. Each chapter is devoted to a particular character in a major Australian novel; comparisons are made with other literary works, Australian and non- Australian. The individual chapters reveal the metaphors and symbolism attached to the character's particular deformity, and demonstrate how the deformed body informs the body of the text. The whole study presents an overall picture of  deformity as  a fairly consistent and  an  often-utilised metaphor. Chapter One provides a general survey of deformity as a metaphor. Chapter  Two  looks  at  Louis  Stone's  Jonah   (1911),  in   which   the hunchbacked  larrikin  character  is  a  post-colonial  interpretation  of  the traditionally conjoined outcast states, deformity and criminality. In Chapter Three  the  dwarf Jackie in  Ruth  Park's  Swords  and  Crowns  and  Rings (1977) is seen as a metaphor for non-conformity during a time when Australia was signalling a resistance to the Old-World moulding. Chapter Four is also concerned with the post-colonial identity as revealed through the dwarf and half-caste Billy Kwan  in  C.  J.  Koch's The  Year of  Living  Dangerously (1978); it questions an identity that is 'imposed', whether at a national or individual level. In Chapter Five the relationship of the hunchbacked dwarf Rhoda Courtney with  her adopted brother, the  artist Duffield, in Patrick White's  The  Vivisector  (1970) places  deformity  in  the  tradition  of  the kunstlerroman.  In Chapter Six, Koch's The Doubleman (1985) is shown to combine elements of the  kunstlerroman while raising questions about the post-colonial identity through the dualities arising out of the doppelganger: spiritual, bodily, and cultural displacement are all focussed by the device of Richard Miller's lameness. Chapter Seven moves from deformity that is congenital or disease-originated, to disability or deformity that is human- caused (either by negligence or intervention), thus allowing a discussion of the importance of the etiology of deformity as a device: in Thea Astley's The Acolyte  (1972) Jack Holberg's blindness is caused by  fly-strike.  Chapter Eight examines the use of terror evoked through archetypal evolution of the lame crone Hester Harper in Elizabeth Jolley's The Well (1985). In Chapter Nine  the  crypto-dwarf Arthur  Blackberry  in  James  McQueenls Hook's Mountain  (1982) is portrayed with  the accompanying baggage of dwarf mythology; his implicit demise raises questions about our responses towards the deformed. Chapter Ten is a literary history of eugenics, as seen primarily through Eleanor Dark's Prelude to Christopher (1934) and Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children (1940). The conclusion discusses the initial, problems of dealing with a taboo topic, along with reasons for excluding autobiographicaltreatments of deformity, biographical portrayals, war novels, and children's literature. Finally, Leslie Fiedler's comment that deformity is the reigning metaphor  of our  age is  shown  to  be  particularly apt  in  an Australian context.&#13;
</p></div><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" cellpadding="3" class="not_ep_block" border="0"><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Item Type:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Thesis (PhD)</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Keywords:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Australian fiction - twentieth century - history and criticism, Deformity in literature  </td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Subjects:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/420202.html">420000 Language and Culture &gt; 420200 Literature Studies &gt; 420202 Australian and New Zealand</a></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ID Code:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">1393</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited By:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><span class="ep_name_citation"><span class="person_name">Eprints Repository Manager</span></span></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited On:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">16 Jul 2007</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Last Modified:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">09 Jan 2008 02:30</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ePrint Statistics:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a target="ePrintStats" href="/es/index.php?action=show_detail_eprint;id=1393;">View statistics for this ePrint</a></td></tr></table><p align="right">Repository Staff Only: <a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/users/home?screen=EPrint::View&amp;eprintid=1393">item control page</a></p>
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