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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| 01front.pdf | contents and abstract | 248.38 kB | |||
| 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 Hardwickβs 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 β Adlerβs ππ±π¦π¦π₯π£π°π’π΅ (2013) [1976] and ππͺπ΅π€π© ππ’π³π¬ (2013) [1983], and Hardwickβs πππ¦π¦π±ππ¦π΄π΄ ππͺπ¨π©π΅π΄ (2001) [1979] β 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 βperformanceβ and βperformativityβ proliferated inside and outside of the academy. Hardwick addressed the inherent theatricality of literary forms such as letters and journals. Adler, in ππ±π¦π¦π₯π£π°π’π΅, situates language in terms of performativity. Despite these correlations, there is currently no scholarship that analyses Adler and Hardwickβs work using this critical framework. My case studies combine close readings with archival research, establishing Adler and Hardwickβs 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 β a novella titled ππ’π¬πͺπ―π¨ ππ¦π―π₯π¦π³ ππ’π€π¦π΄ β influenced by Adler and Hardwickβs fragmented prose style and thematically shaped by one of the major recurring themes to emerge from this research project: doubling. Spilt into two parts (ππ’π³π΅ ππ―π¦ is set in Sydney and ππ’π³π΅ ππΈπ° at a convent in an unnamed country), ππ’π¬πͺπ―π¨ ππ¦π―π₯π¦π³ ππ’π€π¦π΄ 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. ππ’π¬πͺπ―π¨ ππ¦π―π₯π¦π³ ππ’π€π¦π΄ 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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