AustLit
Incorporating the Physical Corporeality, Abjection and the Role of Laura Trevelyan in Voss
single work
Issue Details:
First known date:
2014...
2014
Incorporating the Physical Corporeality, Abjection and the Role of Laura Trevelyan in Voss
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
‘This essay argues that corporeality forms the focus of a close narrative attention and is ultimately granted a redemptive significance in Patrick White's fiction. The argument therefore opposes the opinions of critics who, at the height of critical interest in White's writing during the 1970s and 1980s, identified White's attention to the body as a sign of radical disgust and thus of a defining dualism that posits the 'purity' of the disembodied spirit in relation to the 'pollution' of the material world. Brian Kiernan, for example, read White's writing as presenting "the soul imprisoned in the corrupting flesh." (1976, 462) For Ron Shepherd, White's novels suggested that the "physical world and bodily existence" is a "facade which must be pierced by the deeper mind in order to arrive at a better understanding." (1978, 29) A.P. Riemer claimed that White's writing is "dedicated to the notion that the body, the flesh and the senses are utterly worthless." (1980, 26) ’ (Introduction)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Last amended 7 Jun 2017 12:04:16
63-81
Incorporating the Physical Corporeality, Abjection and the Role of Laura Trevelyan in Voss
Subjects:
- Voss : A Novel 1957 single work novel
- The Cockatoos : Shorter Novels and Stories 1974 selected work short story
- The Eye of the Storm 1973 single work novel
- The Tree of Man 1955 single work novel
- Voss : A Novel 1957 single work novel
- A Fringe of Leaves 1976 single work novel
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