School of Culture and Communication - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 2 of 2
-
ItemFauna Fiction: 'Interspecies Communication in Contemporary Literature' and 'The Animals in That Country'( 2017)Instances of interspecies communication and miscommunication occur in almost every interaction humans have with other animals. Nonetheless, discussions of nonhuman animals as communicative subjects are often relegated to interspecies language experiments and children’s fiction. This thesis makes an original contribution by exploring representations of interspecies communication in contemporary adult fiction, which I call ‘fauna fiction’. In the critical component I analyse in some detail what is occurring in novelistic accounts of human-nonhuman animal encounters. I focus on six contemporary fauna fictions: The Conversations of Cow (1985) by Suniti Namjoshi, The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore (2011) by Benjamin Hale, Wish (1995) by Peter Goldsworthy, A Beautiful Truth (2013) by Colin McAdam, Bear (1976) by Marian Engel and Dog Boy (2009) by Eva Hornung. In these texts, the meeting point of attempted contact between species is framed theoretically by three key concepts: the ‘speaking meat’ (as conceptualised by ecofeminist philosopher Val Plumwood), the ‘species boundary’, and ‘language primacy’. I argue that what I call ‘agency-centred models’ of literary animal studies – in which nonhuman animals are considered as responding beings – provide a relevant theoretical base from which to study interspecies communication in fauna fiction. In order to draw out these ideas, I ask: how we might read these novels as disruptive speculations upon a perceived species divide between human and nonhuman animals? I argue that fauna fiction contains subversive sexual and violent subtexts of nonhuman animal resistance. Through this lens, the nonhuman animal protagonist is no longer an allegory or stand-in for human meaning in fiction, but a destabilising, transgressive and resistant figure. The creative component consists of a novel extract, The Animals in That Country. The novel is an apocalyptic literary fiction that provides new insights by exploring communicative human-nonhuman animal relationships. The story follows Jean, a fifty-one-year-old Australian zoo guide, into a world where humans can understand other animals. Through shared communication the human characters in this novel are able to put words to their complex relationships with other animals. They are also confronted with their own animality, a reality for which the language barrier usually provides a convenient shield. Conversations between species forge new connections. The novel also engages with issues of intersubjectivity, power and violence, resulting in dystopian outcomes. As the narrative develops, a dingo character called Sue becomes increasingly important to Jean, and eventually takes charge of Jean’s life. Through this process, dingo speech is prioritised. In The Animals in That Country, the overwhelming responsibility that comes with sudden shared communication with other creatures is sometimes offset by the thrill of insight into previously incomprehensible minds.
-
ItemWriting Cambodia: representations of the ‘other’ in contemporary short fiction and ‘The Real Cambodia’( 2011)The critical component of this thesis, ‘Writing Cambodia: Representations of the ‘other’ in contemporary short fiction’, is concerned with the problematic relationship between two of the dominant discourses of otherness theory –postcolonial and psychoanalytic theory – and the practice of creative writers drawn to topics of otherness. Focusing on ten short stories about Cambodia by Cambodian and non-Cambodian writers – Anonymous, Soth Polin, Bith Pollie, Brian Fawcett, Joel Arnold, Santel Phin, Madeline Thien, Sharon May and Chakriya Phou – I argue that theories that emphasise ‘contact’ allow for a more productive intercultural analysis of representation. Using Mary Louise Pratt’s concept of ‘contact zones’ in combination with Shameem Black’s notion of ‘border-crossing fiction’ and Shelley Fisher Fishkin’s term ‘transgressive texts’, I argue that otherness in cross-cultural contemporary short fiction can be mapped through the lens of ‘intersubjectivity’. I utilise Marcia Langton’s model, which focuses on authenticity, stereotype and contact. This is used as a practical and critical tool for discussions of contact and otherness in the production and realisation of short stories about Cambodia. The creative component of this thesis comprises six short stories from a collection of 15 titled ‘The Real Cambodia’. This linked collection of stories about Cambodia, tourism and its effects, demonstrates a practical application of contact theories, in particular that of border-crossing fiction, by fictionally exploring the consequences and outcomes of writing about an ‘other’ culture. Using multiple viewpoints, the stories look at otherness through themes of sex work, alienation, racism, poverty, war and love. The selection of stories from ‘The Real Cambodia’ are a practical demonstration of fiction that crosses borders, contributing to a literary community of Cambodian and non-Cambodian authors who are writing about Cambodia and challenging traditional forms of representation.