Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'White, Patrick, 1912-1990. Voss'

White met en exergue de son avant-dernier roman un passage de David Malouf, extrait de An imaginary life, qui pourrait ouvrir un recueil de ses oeuvres, tant il éclaire avec justesse la vision existentielle au coeur de sa création romanesque : « what else should our lives be but a series of beginnings, of painful settings out into the unknown, pushing off from the edges of consciousness into the mystery of what we have not yet become ». Les termes « unknown » et « mystery of what we have not yet become » prennent une importance toute particulière quand ils sont appliqués à l'univers de White. Si le romancier incite avec force son lecteur à s'engager, à la suite des personnages, dans une exploration de son monde intérieur, il ne lui donne aucune réponse définitive et s'emploie au contraire, avec des moyens de plus en plus variés, complexes et maitrisés, à déjouer tous les modes conventionnels d'interprétation, à démonter les systèmes idéologiques et philosophiques, comme le prouvent les points de vue contradictoires adoptés par les critiques de ses oeuvres<br>Patrick White's preoccupation is with the process of self-discovery, of setting out into the unknown territory of the mind. His novels are exploratory. What matters is the quest for meaning, more than definite answers. For him, truth is a matter of interrogation, it is unattainable and inexpressible. Only through intuition is it possible to apprehend it, beyond words and systems. The various assertions of silence in the novels offer a supplementary space, inviting a dynamic and inventive reading of a text that is unfinished but calling for completion

Patrick white, prix nobel australien, auteur d'une oeuvre romanesque considerable et proteiforme, s'est aussi employe a souligner l'incapacite du langage verbal a dire l'essentiel. C'est peut-etre ce constat qui justifie l'interet perceptible de bout en bout dans sa fiction pour d'autres formes d'expression artistique, pour l'intertextualite heterosemiotique, pour le dialogisme trans-artistique ou l'utilisation de differents "langages" croises (litterature, musique, danse, chant, peinture). Apres avoir execute plusieurs portraits d'artistes inaboutis dans the aunt's story, the tree of man, voss et the solid mandala, l'ecrivian se focalise sur la peinture, mode artistique qu'il privilegie, peut-etre parce qu'elle est plus universelle et plus immediate dans sa perception que l'ecriture. White ecrit avec l'oeil du peintre, convoque tableaux ou peintres sous forme de citations, represente des personnages peintres dont la creation est mise en parallele avec celle du roman qui les cree. Il se livre a l'exploration systematisee de la peinture dans the vivisector, roman qui met en scene une figure d'artiste visionnaire, qui est aussi artiste-vivisecteur, dont la production est tant le produit de l'imagination et de l'esprit que du corps, et dont la quete picturale est aussi quete du sacre (l'identification est totale dans riders in the chariot). Mais dans toute l'oeuvre romanesque, en meme temps que l7ecriture cherche a produire des visions epiphaniques qui s'accompagnent de la creatons de figures de la totalite (mandala, lustre-chandelier. . . ), la voix auctoriale fait la part belle a l'ironie qui tourne souvent a tragique, patrick white<br>Patrick white, australian winner of the nobel prize and author of a considerable number of protean novels, has emphasized the inability of verbal language to convey what is essential. This perceived inability explains the interest throughout his work in toher forms of artistic expression, in nonliterary intertextuality, in transartistic dialogue or in the use of different cross- "langues" (literature, music, dancing, singing, painting). After drawing several portraits of frustrated of failed artists in the aunt's story, the tree man, voss and the solid mandala, white focuses on painting, an art form for which he shows a marked preference, perhaps because it is more universally and immedialtely perceivable than writing. White writes with the painter's eye; he quotes paintings and painters, and he portrays painters whose creation is paralleled by the novel which creates them. The systematically explores painting in the vivisector, a novel about a visionary artist, a vivisector-artist, whose painting is as much the product of the imagination and the mind as of the body, and whose pictural quest is also a quest for the sacred (in riders in the chariot, the two quests are one). But, throughout the novels and their attempt to reach epiphanic visions with the accompaying creation of figures of totality such as the mandala or the chandelier, the auctorial voice is more than tinged with ironic - even tragic - overtones, and patrick white thus achieves a

The focus of this thesis has been to engage in a hermeneutic dialogue with Patrick White's novel The solid mandala, to provide an explication of the dual nature of narcissistic wounding. To this end a brief review of Patrick White's novels is given, which traces a thematic development of the hero's strivings to attain wholeness and merger with an idealized image. This struggle is understood to reflect man's strivings to return to a state of omnipotent fusion with the maternal image, be it God, nature, the idealized other, or the self. Literature which reflects the dual nature of narcissistic wounding is reviewed, and the concept of narcissism is traced from the historical roots of Freud, to current understandings of the function and experience of narcissism. Emphasis is given to understanding the experiential nature of narcissistic wounding. As such it is implied that narcissism is a normal developmental component which requires the facilitation of containment and reflection for its transformation into appropriate adult functioning. The importance of the maternal environment is discussed, together with the various theoretical conceptualizations of the consequences of failure of the environment. The hermeneutic dialogue with the novel's description of the experiences of the twins, Waldo and Arthur provides the basis for an amplification of the experience of narcissistic wounding. This amplification is used as clinical material from which a number of psychoanalytic formulations are drawn. These formulations are supported by a number of clinical examples from the researcher's own practice. There appears to be evidence for the value of focusing on the dual nature of the experience of narcissistic wounding. This focus reveals two aspects of experience, a damaged, positive, libidinal aspect and a defensive, pathological destructive aspect. Amplification of these two aspects of experience contribute to further the understanding of the conflictual experience of narcissistic wounding, and suggest the necessity for such an understanding for effective therapeutic intervention

"Still Life" argues that Patrick White's fiction reveals objects in surprising, unexpected attitudes so as to challenge the process by which the mind usually connects with the world around it. In particular, White's novels disrupt readers' tacit assumptions about the lethargic nature of substance; this thesis traces how his fiction reaches beyond familiar linguistic and stylistic forms in order to reinvent humanity's generally passive perception of reality. The first chapter outlines the historical context of ideas about the "object," tracing their development from the Bible through literary movements such as romanticism, symbolism, surrealism and modernism. Further, the chapter considers the nature of language and the relation of object to word in order to distinguish between the usual symbolic use made of objects in literature and White's treatment of things as discrete, palpable entities. The second chapter focuses on White's first three published novels—Happy Valley (1939), The Living and the Dead (1941) and The Aunt's Story (1948)--as steps in his novelistic growth. Chapters Three, Four and Five examine respectively The Tree of Man (1955), The Solid Mandala (1966) and The Eye of the Storm (1973); these novels represent successive stages of White's career and exemplify his different formal and stylistic techniques. White's innovations demand a new manner of reading; therefore, each novel is discussed in terms of objects which reflect the shapes of the works themselves: "tree" defines the structure and style of Tree of Man "house" inspires Solid Mandala and "body" shapes Eye of the Storm. Reading White's novels in terms of structural analogues not only illuminates his methodology, but also clarifies his distinction between objective and subjective ways of understanding the world. Further, these chapters also refute critics' arguments that White's objects are merely victims of his overambitious use of personification and pathetic fallacy, or that they are the result of his dabbling in mysticism. "Still Life" concludes by showing how Patrick White's novels sequentially break down assumptions about reality and appearance until the reality of language itself falters. The author restores mystery to things by relocating the possibility of the extraordinary within the narrow, prescribed confines of the ordinary. White succeeds in changing readers' notions about the nature of reality by disrupting the habitual process by which they apprehend the world of things.<br>Arts, Faculty of<br>English, Department of<br>Graduate

Le monde imaginaire de patrick white se fonde sur l'idee du monde dechu et la nature divisee de l'homme. Pour palier cet etat de schize dans l'individu, white examine la possibilite d'une plenitude a travers l'union physique ou spirituelle, et meme l'union mystique et mysterieuse de l'ame en dieu<br>The fallen world and the consequent divided self form the basis of patrick white's imaginary universe. Attempts to regain a lost harmony and plenitude may involve physical and spiritual union between human beings, however the ultimate union desired by man is the mystic and mysterious communion of the soul with god

Cette thèse se propose de réévaluer la spécificité des quatre dernières œuvres de fiction de Patrick White. En effet, la tendance de la critique fut de ramener l’intégralité de l’œuvre de White aux romans de la période médiane (dont plusieurs appartiennent indéniablement au canon de la littérature australienne), ce qui ne fait pas justice à la spécificité des différents textes et à l’évolution perceptible au sein de l’œuvre. Dans cette perspective, c’est le motif religieux qui fait figure de clef de voûte de l’univers whitien, l’union au divin s’offrant comme solution au questionnement identitaire des personnages, qui y trouvent une forme d’unité. Or, précisément, dans les quatre dernières œuvres fictionnelles, le divin disparaît au fur et à mesure que le sujet émerge, comme en témoigne notamment l’affirmation progressive du récit à la première personne. Cette évolution thématique et esthétique entraîne une révision radicale de la quête d’identité des personnages et de son point d’aboutissement. À la lumière des concepts de moi et de sujet, hérités de Freud et réinterprétés par Lacan, nous proposons de voir comment s’opère une subversion de l’identité entendue comme « mêmeté » (Ricœur), qui aboutit à une redéfinition de l’unité et de la vérité de soi. Cette subversion de l’identité va de pair avec la remise en cause de l’identité littéraire de l’écrivain, dont l’œuvre fictionnelle ultime devient plus ludique, le jeu avec le lecteur participant de la construction d’une vérité à multiples facettes<br>The purpose of this thesis is to reassess the specificity of Patrick White’s last four long fictional works. Critics have indeed tended to interpret the whole of White’s literary production through the prism of the novels of the middle period – several of which undeniably rank high in Australian literary heritage – thus missing the specific character of the various texts or the perceptible evolution within White’s work. This perspective presents the religious motif as the keystone of the Whitian universe, where uniting with the divine is seen as a solution to the characters’ quest for identity. In White’s last fictional works however, the divine element gradually disappears as a divided subject emerges, this being particularly noticeable in the progressive assertion of the first person narrative. This thematic and aesthetic evolution brings about a radical change in the characters’ quest for identity and its conclusion. Freudian concepts of the self and the subject reinterpreted by Lacan allow the subversion of identity – understood as “sameness” (Ricoeur) – to be presented in terms of a redefinition of the self’s unity and truth. This subversion of identity also means questioning the writer’s literary identity: White’s last fictional works become more of a game involving the reader in the process of building up a multi-faceted truth

Patrick white, ecrivain australien qui s'est senti deracine toute sa vie, a utilise le continent australien comme catalyseur d'une experience spirituelle. La presentation topographique et ethnographique laisse des lors rapidement la place a une sision plus personnelle, y compris la satire du comportement de ses compatriotes trop materialiste selon lui, et des intellectuels. Desireux de trouver un monde harmonieux, il ne sert de se cinq sens et de symboles communs a diverses cultures, diverses religions, et qui font partie de ce que c. G. Jung appelais "l'inconscient collectif". Citions par exemple les quatre elements les mysteres orphiques ou encore la religion et sa signification profonde. En effet, white se detacle de la religion etablie pour se consacrer a la necessite de la souffrance pour arriver a la redemption. Nombreux sont les personnages de ses romans qui, apres maintes epreuves, quittent leur "ecorce" intellectuelle pour prendre compte l'humanite dans son ensemble. L'infini est le but de white : comment l'apprehender, si ce n'est, nous suggere-t-il, par l'humilite, par la sensualite et un gout pour la vie, l'art aussi, emanation dy pouvoir spirituel de l'homme<br>Patrick white, an australian writer who felt he was uprooted, used the australian continent as the catalyst of a spiritual experience. The geographic and ethnographe discriptions soon give way to a more personnel vision, including the satire of his fellow citiezns who were materialistic according to him, and also the criticism of the intellectuals. Eager as he was to find harmony in this world, he used his five senses and symbols common to different cultures ans religions, and which are part of what c. C. Jung names "the collective unconscious". We shall quote for instance the four elements, orphic mysteries or religion and its profond significance. Indeed, white quickly turned away from all official religions and emphasized the necessity of suffering in order to know redemption. There are numeros characters in his novels who, having passed through quite a few ordeals, relinquish their intellectual "skin" and consider humanity as a whole. The infinite is white's aim : he suggests that one can only grasp it through an attitude of humility, through sensuousness and a willingness to live, through art also, which is a product of man's

This study is concerned with an evaluation of the suffering and self of the elected characters in the novels of Patrick White. The suffering these elected characters endure, apart from the uncomprehending antagonism of society, takes place mainly in the country of the mind - "that solitary land of the individual experience, in which no fellow footfall is ever heard" (Epigraph to The Aunt's Story) - and is a form of catharsis in preparatory to a reunion with God as the Source of all Being. The suffering, whether of a psychic or physical nature - or both - is complicated by the duality between the esoteric and exoteric selves of the characters involved. The nature of the suffering is always solitary. The wisdom eventually gained from the suffering cannot be shared. Contact with fellow elect is brief and without consequence except for mutual recongnition of "outsidership". It is clear that the elected character has no apparent control of what happens to him in life. The reader gains the impression that the elected characters in White's novels are the involuntary victims of some "malign" life-force that, paradoxically, brings about a state of grace. White touches on, but wisely prefers not to examine, the problems of predestination and euthanasia. The elected characters are all outsiders in the sense that they are, in some psychic or physical manner, different from the members of the society in which they find themselves. In the earlier novels the elected characters' alienism is characterised by their intuitive awareness of another, nonphysical, transcendent plane of being - "There is another world, but it is in this one" (Epigraph to The Solid Mandala) . Progressive reading of White's novels reveals that his conception of suffering, despite disavowal, is in line with the Biblical concept of suffering as described in Paul's letter to the Romans. The non-elected members of society with whom the elect come into conflict either do not understand or are unwilling to admit their intuitive awareness that there is another world within the familiar one, a concept White frequently refers to in his image of boxes and boxes within boxes. The secret knowledge the elect seem to have antagonises the other members of society because of the sense of loss they experience. White's later novels reveal a concern with sexually aberrated suffering which is closely aligned to his own unhappiness. The sexual duality that is an essential aspect of Theodora Goodman's (The Aunt's Story) dilemma gains progressively more of White's attention and is eventually exposed in his biography of Eddie Twyborn (The Twyborn Affair). White's concern with abnormal sexuality is related to his disquiet with the mystery of the soul baing "housed” in a body not only unsuitable, but also contrary to the nature of the psyche which is either predominantly male or female. White is clearly angry that this mystery should be the profound result of momentary lust. Although so many of White's elect labour under spiritually destructive burdens of guilt, the parents who are considered the root cause of all suffering in a post-lapsarian state, feel little of any compunction because they are too concerned with their own suffering, real or imagined. God as Source or God as the "One" is an all-pervading, if unacknowledged force in White's corpus and in the lives of his elect. The elect turn to God only when they have suffered and acknowledged their dependence on Him. It is sad that White should, in the end not find himself in "the boundless garden" with Stan Parker (The Tree of Man). He seems to share the fates of Theodora Goodman (The Aunt's Story) and Arthur Brown (The Solid Mandala).<br>Thesis (DLitt)--UOVS, 1989

By comparing the novels of William Faulkner and Patrick White, this thesis reconsiders modernism's elitism and solipsism by revealing within them a critical interest in liberating minority perspective. Theoretical debates which continue to insist on modernism's inherent distance from the identity politics which front the postmodernist movement are overlooking modernism's deeply embedded evaluative mechanisms which work to expose and criticize the activity of psychic and social co-optation. Faulkner and White are both engaged in fictionally tracing the complexities of a failing patriarchy which can no longer substantiate its primary subjects — the white, upper class male. As representatives of modernism we can see that Faulkner and White, perhaps unwittingly, initiate the awareness that the 'failure' of their chosen subjects is in large measure due to processes of marginalization which both created the authoritative power structures within which they are constructed and helped serve to collapse them. The classic isolation of the modernist subject can be looked at not simply as an isolation predicated on endless self-referentiality, but rather on a desperate social outreaching for which he or she is not psychically equipped. By following the trajectory and perspective of specific novels and characters it becomes clear that it is precisely this handicap which clears the textual space for diversity of representation, just as it overturns the notion of modernism's functioning separatism. Chapter one concentrates on the double-edged representation of the female subject constructed as always-already 'guilty' within the psychologically, emotionally and physically repressive terms of the dominant male power structures within the context of Faulkner's Requiem for a Nun and White's A Fringe of Leaves. Chapter two investigates the psychological parameters of the morally disenfranchised modern subject whose disillusionment results from prejudicial social practices promoted by virulent racial anxiety as exemplified in Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and White's Voss. The third and final chapter discusses Light in August and Riders in the Chariot with attention to modernism's own investigation of the exclusion of minority voices from collective social imagining. The thesis posits that literary modernism is interested less with reconciling its literary subjects within a self-contained totalizing project than it is with invoking new social and psychological paradigms that stress the necessity of external, not internal, represented multiplicity, and that what has been (mis)recognized as modernism's self-closure is, in fact, the key not only to its own continuing relevance, but to the contemporaneous literary injunction to let all voices be heard.