University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016 University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2004 The thematic development of the magical child in fifteen recent New Zealand novels Jennifer M. Crawford University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Crawford, Jennifer M, The thematic development of the magical child in fifteen recent New Zealand novels, PhD thesis, Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, 2004. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/393 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: research-pubs@uow.edu.au
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THE THEMATIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAGICAL CHILD IN FIFTEEN RECENT NEW ZEALAND NOVELS A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY from UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG by JENNIFER M.CRAWFORD BCA (Hons) Faculty of Creative Arts 2004
Crawford 2 CERTIFICATION I, Jennifer M. Crawford, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Jennifer M. Crawford 16 April 2004
Crawford 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations and Maori Words 6 Abstract 8 Acknowledgements 10 1. Introduction 11 1.1 Argument 11 1.2 Context 14 i. Critical 15 ii. Historical 16 1.3 Definitions 19 i. The Child 19 ii. Magic 21 1.4 Scope and Limitations 26 1.5 Thesis Structure 27 i. Chapter Summary 28 2. The Child in Literature: Theory and History 34 2.1 Overview 34 2.2 Early Literature 41 2.3 The Romantic Child 49 2.3.1 The Deconstruction of the Romantic Child 53 2.3.2 The Romantic Child, Maternal Absence and the Menacing Child 56 2.4 Psychoanalysis and the Post-Romantic Child 59
Crawford 4 2.5 The New Zealand Child 68 3. Representations of the Child in New Zealand Literature, Mansfield to Frame 80 3.1 Katherine Mansfield 80 3.2 Robin Hyde 90 3.3 John A. Lee 96 3.4 James Courage 99 3.5 Ian Cross 106 3.6 Sylvia Ashton-Warner 114 3.7 David Ballantyne 118 3.8 Janet Frame 125 4. The Saviour Child and the Sea 137 4.1 Overview 137 4.2 The Children, Magic and Christ 139 4.3 The Children, Maui and the Sea 148 4.4 The Children and their Parents 155 4.5 Community, Identity and Environment 159 4.6 Child Sacrifice 163 4.7 The Child and the Author 167 4.8 Conclusion 173 5. Saving it for Later: Postponed Redemptions 176 5.1 Overview 176 5.2 The Child and Magic 178 5.3 The Nature of Childhood 184
Crawford 5 5.4 Parentage, Opposition and the Void 201 5.5 Adulthood, Sacrifice and Social Detachment 208 6. Te Kore and the Wheiao: The Child Under Threat 219 6.1 Overview 219 6.2 Construction of Child Characters 221 6.3 Construction of the Void 237 6.4 Te Kore and the Mother 244 6.5 Conclusion 249 7. The Endangering Child 253 7.1 Overview 253 7.2 Conceptions 256 7.3 Gestation and Birth 266 7.4 The Child and Language 276 7.5 The Child in Society 287 7.6 Conclusion 299 8. Conclusion 302 Works Cited 316
Crawford 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND MAORI WORDS Abbreviations: DS M RPL The Dream Swimmer The Matriarch Revolution in Poetic Language Maori Words: (Compiled in consultation with The Reed Dictionary of Modern Maori and Cleve Barlow s Tikanga Whakaaro: Key Concepts in Maori Culture.) iwi: tribe, people kaitiakitanga: guardianship kehua: ghost kihikihi: cicada mana: integrity, charisma, esteem marae: meeting area of whanau or iwi mauriora/mauri: consciousness, life spirit or principle Maoritanga: Maori culture mokopuna: grandchild taniwha: water monster, powerful person tapu: sacred, forbidden taumau: arranged (marriage) Te Ao Maori: the Maori world Te Kore: the Void potiki: last born, youngest
Crawford 7 poupou: carved posts whangai: adopt child wharekai: dining room, eating area wheiao: a liminal state between the worlds of darkness and light whenua: ground, country, afterbirth, placenta
Crawford 8 ABSTRACT Fifteen New Zealand novels, published between 1983 and 2000, are considered with regard to their representation of the magical child figure. The child is a benign and regenerative figure in the earlier works in this period, with its magical qualities used to heighten its role in a redemptive progression towards the reform of social structures depicted as damaging of cultural and environmental heritage. Later in the period the regenerative possibilities offered by the child diminish, as the relationship between the individual child and adult society diversifies. Where a clear adult/child dichotomy in the early works renders the child as essentially positive and life-giving, the later, more complex field renders the child as less symbolically powerful, more individually threatening and less physically and characteristically distinct from the adult. The novels examined are Keri Hulme s the bone people, Patricia Grace s Potiki, Cousins and Baby No Eyes, Witi Ihimaera s The Whale Rider, The Matriarch and The Dream Swimmer, Rachel McAlpine s The Limits of Green, Fiona Farrell s The Skinny Louie Book, Elizabeth Knox s Treasure, Sue Reidy s The Visitation, John Cranna s Arena, Anne Kennedy s A Boy and His Uncle, Anthony McCarten s Spinners and Peter Hawes s A Dream of Nikau Jam. The novels are considered within the context of the history of the child character in literature, and particularly of the thematic traditions surrounding child characters throughout twentieth century New Zealand literature. The simultaneous vitality and vulnerability of the child figure, and the transcendent qualities of the magical child, are found to be critical to its construction. These qualities are examined through the
Crawford 9 novels representations of filiation, nationhood and in the persistent construction of a symbolic relationship between the magical child and various manifestations of a metaphysical void.
Crawford 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many family members and friends have supported me during the creation of this work and I offer each of them my deepest thanks. In particular I would like to thank those who have offered in-house support: my parents, as well as Lisa Oxman, Lucy Alexander, Bill Pitt and Nic Brown. Special thanks are also due to Dr John Hawke for his patience, good humour and critical intelligence. I am very grateful to the University of Wollongong for the financial support of a University Postgraduate Award, without which this work would not have been possible.