Some aspects of imagery in the novels of Patrick White
Date
1979
Authors
Cotter, Michael Thomas
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Throughout his novels, Patrick White addresses himself to
questions fundamental to human existence and understanding. His
stance is prophetic and the mode of his narrative is appropriately
poetic. In the formulation and presentation of his images, White
unifies the subjects of his fiction and the language in which they
are rendered.
The potential of discursive prose inherent, or at least
traditional in the novel, is revalued in White's creative effort.
Essentially his novels are explorations of character, from which
he extrapolates the implications arising from his vision of humanity
as inhabiting a world rich in covert significances that may only
occasionally be glimpsed. White's major characters do not
substantially develop in the sense of becoming essentially different
in the course of the novel in which they are presented. Instead
their growth is a process of increasing awareness and understanding
of what they are, the world in which they have their being and
their place within that world.
White's novels are, as he has said, attempts 'to come close
to the core of reality, the structure of reality'. The exposition
and development of the themes growing from the attempt - the
essential solitariness of the self and its paradoxically resultant
union with all human life; the necessity of thorough engagement
with every aspect of experience; the possibility of illuminated
understanding; and the relation of humanity to divinity - are
realized in the dynamic function of his presentative language and
especially of his imagery .
The imagery in White's novels is seen in this thesis to
function according to the two basic principles of recurrence and
centrality. The recurrence of images both informs the novels with
their poetic texture and clarifies the development of situation
and character within them. In the episodic structure of the novels,
images establish coherence and continuity by conditioning the episodes and by linking them at a connotative level. Thus in
relation to episodes in the novels, imagery may be seen to function
in terms of both the principle of recurrence and that of centrality.
The scale of reference of a central image ext ends fr om single
episodes to the entire novel. In the first three chapters of
the thesis, I discuss the proposition that White's implementation
of these two principles produces a stylistic embodiment of theme
which results in immediacy of exposition.
Yet the novels are more than the sum of a number of
interlocking aesthetic structures and in the final chapter of the
thesis, I argue that the thematic essence of White's works is
figured in the motifs which have, in the course of his creative
effort, established themselves as predominant. In White's
presentation of the image of the human body, of the image of the
material world, and of the imagery of revelation and understanding,
the growth of his characters is both recorded and enacted.
Such a critical approach obviously demands a sustained
close reference to the primary texts and I have tried to support
my argument throughout the thesis with detailed analysis. As a
major novelist of the twentieth century, White has expressed a
vision of humanity in the world which repays the most careful
and precise attention. I do not claim to have exhaustively covered
every aspect of his style, or even of his imagery, but I hope
that my study will contribute to an understanding of his works.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Collections
Source
Type
Thesis (PhD)
Book Title
Entity type
Access Statement
License Rights
Restricted until
Downloads
File
Description