A Sonata for two women performance and performativity in the works of Renata Adler and Elizabeth Hardwick
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2019
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| 02whole.pdf | thesis | 1.23 MB |
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This dissertation examines the correlations between the acts of reading and writing and concepts of performance and/or performativity via case studies of North American authors Renata Adler and Elizabeth Hardwick. I argue that Adler and Hardwick’s literary works, in varying ways, exemplify or illuminate theatrical concepts that underscore the acts of reading and writing, as theorised by Mikhail Bakhtin and Wolfgang Iser.
The novels that act as primary texts in this study – Adler’s 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘵 (2013) [1976] and 𝘗𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬 (2013) [1983], and Hardwick’s 𝘚𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 (2001) [1979] – emerged during a wave of American metafictional and postmodernist literature. They utilise an author-as-persona and feature literary allusions, essayistic meditations, self-reflexive and/or metafictional references, and overt autobiographical references. Crucially, they also emerged during the same period that the terms “performance” and “performativity” proliferated inside and outside of the academy. Hardwick addressed the inherent theatricality of literary forms such as letters and journals. Adler, in 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘵, situates language in terms of performativity. Despite these correlations, there is currently no scholarship that analyses Adler and Hardwick’s work using this critical framework. My case studies combine close readings with archival research, establishing Adler and Hardwick’s texts in their literary historical contexts and drawing on recent author-generated material. Along with Bakhtin and Iser, my analysis is also informed by theorists working in the fields of poststructuralism, postmodernist studies, performance studies, and post-classical narratology.
This PhD includes a minor creative component – a novella titled 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴 – influenced by Adler and Hardwick’s fragmented prose style and thematically shaped by one of the major recurring themes to emerge from this research project: doubling. Spilt into two parts (𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘖𝘯𝘦 is set in Sydney and 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘛𝘸𝘰 at a convent in an unnamed country), 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴 ruminates on the interrelated subjects of identity and fiction-making. Throughout the novella, certain storylines, characters, and images are mirrored as the narrative follows the lives of two different protagonists. 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴 responds to questions raised in the critical component via thematic undercurrents that speak to ideas concerning performance, persona, and the addresser/addressee relationship in the acts of reading and writing.
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