Personal and cultural identities are influenced by many factors – including social and family environments, gender norms, historical narratives, and many other factors. With reference to some of these factors, this essay discusses representations of identity in the literary works of two Australian authors: Henry Lawson and Ali Cobby Eckermann.
The narrative works of Australian literature have progressively broadened during the last couple of centuries. Australian literature varies from those of foremost memoir accounts of early settlement after the arrival of First Fleet to the ballad poems of Henry Lawson in the post-federation era, until the topmost achievement of Nobel Prize in Literature by Patrick White’s novel “The Voss” in the late 1970s (Gleeson-White 25).
A reflection of the overall literature of Australia is outside the preview of this essay. Nonetheless, this essay applies a close look at the short story of “The Drover’s Wife”, and the poem “Ngingali” to discuss various factors effective on personal and cultural identities and reflects critical debates around the concept of gothic in Australian literature. The usage of gothic in Australian literature goes beyond entertaining with fear, as it shares the universal values of humanities in more realistic quality.
From its very foremost stage, the modern history of Australian literature intertwined with the colonialism. The expansion of colonialism was accompanied by its cultural and literary aspects including the gothic. Among all those colonialized countries, Australia was apparently more suitable to grasp and improve this literary mode. As Wheeler (142) stated the antipodean position, inhospitable landscape, and convict legacy of Australia made it particularly apt gothic setting. Therefore, it seems quite reasonable that from the very beginning of colonisation Australian literature had been tangled with gothic as a productive literary mode.
Although gothic was emerged and primarily developed in Britain following the publication of “The Castle of Otranto” in 1764 (Lake 489), the colonial Australian gothic has enriched with its own distinction. Seeking popularity within this content, Australian gothic asserted a unique identity as a prevalent mode in local literature. Therefore, despite the fact that it was originally departed from Europe, some academics mention the colonial Australian gothic as a restaging of European and American gothic tropes (Gelder & Weaver 3). Since the extensive regions of Australia are barren or encompassed by bush, bush has become the main landscape of cultural features, deeply dominating literary works including many of those in gothic. Therefore, bush legend has underpinned literature and historical narratives, consequently influenced cultural identity to a large extent.
Henry Lawson’s “The Drover’s Wife” is a short story illustrating the daily life of a typical bushwoman. However, the story is set in a realistic arrangement, to some extent, the gothic mode is appeared to be utilised. The story has a simple plot which rarely complies with those of uncanny events and mysterious relations of gothic. Nevertheless, the dominant monotony stretched throughout the story exemplifies a rather empirical apprehension. The drover’s wife has been wakeful all night because a snake had crawled underneath her shanty, so the bush-woman with her four children are under the risk of biting. The Australian cultural identity makes its way through bush legends in this piece of literature, which is influenced by the harsh realities of the outback, surrounded by the very local and actual environment. Here it is, instead of gloomy grasslands, abandoned castles, and stormy graveyards mostly consistent with European gothic. In “The Drover’s Wife”, the story happens in a small house locked in “bushes with no horizon” in a place “nineteen miles to the nearest sign of civilisation” (Lawson 11). Consequently, a particular form of gothic comes to appear, in which fear is a rather contrivance of further wisdom than just a tool of entertaining or even the ultimate desire of the literary work. This is, by all means, a step further; this is the colonial Australian gothic. Thus, by this short story, developing its own distinct variation and identity, Australian gothic seems more promising in seeking beyond horror.
Literary techniques such as characterization, imagery, humour, and suspense are used profoundly, so the author’s idea strikes the mind of the reader. First of all, despite the conventional gothic which often develops melancholy personages, the protagonist in the “Drover’s Wife” is rather an impenetrable housewife tackling with tough realities. “The gaunt sun-browned bushwoman” (Lawson 11) who arms herself with a batten and stands in front of the unwanted guest to get him out of her veranda: “Now you go!” She fights against various horrible elements. However, she is not always successful, because the rivals vary hugely from natural forces like the flood and wind to snaky creatures such as crows. Although she screams frequently for many reasons -one time after the death of her cows- but she does not get disappointed. The flashbacks recount some of those extreme experiences. The episodes improve a personage and assert that what is unique about a bushwoman is that her character is literally not too unique; it represents the basic essence of the human being in its general qualities, which is common everywhere and accepted universally. Therefore, despite tackling with those powerful and severe antagonists, the protagonist is finally successful. “She lifts the mangled reptile on the point of her stick, carries it to the fire” (Lawson 16), because at the end, whoever reflects the universal spirits of humanity, will succeed. The powerful personage always comes through reality, as it is in this story of “The Drover’s Wife”.
The story of “The Drover’s Wife” leaves a great impression on a reader. The reason that one cannot forget it for quite a long time is not just because of the indelible personage, but also for the powerful imagery. The imagery happens in a dichotomy instance, the superficial and deeper. Firstly, there is obvious imagery by which the author illustrates a brighter depiction of the scene and internal trends of the story. “If he had the means he would take her to the city and keep her there like a princess” (Lawson 13). The bushwoman lacks a prosperous life; there has been a long time that she contemplates a modern lifestyle far away from the bush, down in the big cities. She thinks living in a city is like being a princess. Henry Lawson replaces the authorial voice by extracting whatever is in the mind of the protagonist through this image. However, far beyond this, the story does contain a much deeper imagery. To some extent, a “candle” resembles the life of the bushwoman. After being wakeful all night, the author deliberately avoiding to say directly that the bushwoman is tired. To put it another way, Lawson, in a very eloquent literary language of imagery says that the bushwoman got exhausted: “her candle is nearly done” (Lawson15). “The thunderstorm comes on, and the wind, rushing through the cracks in the slab wall, threatens to blow out her candle” (Ibid.). The thunderstorm, the wind, and the cracked house which is relatively not safe, all potentially are threatening to the life of the bushwoman. As is comes to personal identity, the environment seems to be the main factor influencing an Australian bushwoman which has depicted throughout this story.
Suspense and humour are the other literary techniques that the author of “The Drover’s Wife” has benefited in writing this short story. From the beginning of the third paragraph, the presence of snake makes the reader vigilantly ask, what happens next. The suspense continues nearly to the end of the story; that is in the second last paragraph when the dog catches the snake. “He snaps again as the tails come round. He has the snake now”. Furthermore, in a few instances, humour is used to pin the idea more interesting such as “she rushes out and aims broomstick at the birds as though it were a gun” (Lawson 16).
The colonial gothic is not restricted to prose and narrative literature, in the same way, the influential factors on personal and cultural identities are not limited to the local environment. In Australian poems particularly those of Aboriginals’, to a large extent, historical narratives and social background are representing the identity. The poem “Ngingali” by Ali Cobby Eckermann, depicts a profound set of relationship to the country and land and illustrated very close ties to olden Australia. The title of the poem “Ngingali” is Ali’s mother’s name by which the poet bounds her identity on the very first factor which is the homeland. “My mother is a granite boulder” (Eckermann 67) further ties the Aboriginal kinship to the country. The word “granite” expresses a deep-rooted existence with the particular place and ecology. Furthermore, the verse of “a pebble of her in my pocket” (Eckermann 67) brings the continuity of the tribal characteristics which appears to be connecting the personal and cultural identity with the overall history and country.
In conclusion, the colonial gothic in Australian literature has examined the further sense of humanity by depicting worldwide ethics which is more realistic than being of those just uncanny, and the country, land, environment and harsh reality of bush have been depicted as effective factors influencing personal and cultural identities.
References:
Eckermann, Ali Cobby. “Ngingali”. Inside My Mother. Artarmon: Giramondo Publishing Company, 2015: 67. Print.
Gelder, Kenneth, and Rachael, Weaver. The Anthology of Colonial Australian Gothic Fiction. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 2007. Print.
Gleeson-White, Jane, Australian Classics: 50 Great Writers and Their Celebrated Works. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2007. Print.
Lake, Crystal B. "Bloody Records: Manuscripts and Politics in The Castle of Otranto." Modern Philology 110.4 (2013): 489-512. Humanities International Complete. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
Lawson, Henry. While the Billy Boils. n.p. Dec. 2004. Project Gutenberg. Web. Retrieved on 30 April 2016 from https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lawson/henry/while_the_billy_boils/complete.html#book2.1
Wheeler, Belinda. A Companion to Australian Aboriginal Literature. Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2013: 139-152. Print.
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