Australian Home Making In David Malouf’s Novels

David Malouf (1934-) is one of the most influential writers in contemporary Australian literature. He was on the Australian Legends set of stamps, which Australian Post released in 2010. A dashingly versatile and prolific writer, Malouf has produced nine novels and many books of poetry, essays and stories. Most of his novels focus on the various efforts Australians made in home construction. Based on a close reading of four groups of Malouf’s novels, this dissertation offers an investigation of Malouf’s attitude towards the traditional white Australian approaches in setting up a“home”on the continent. Using David Day’s theory of home-making for colonial settlers, it examines Malouf’s critique of the mainstream Australians’treatment of the Aborigines, the antipodean land and landscape and the local culture and points to the vision that he projects for the future homemaking of the Australian society. This dissertation consists of six chapters.Chapter One is the“Introduction”, which begins with a general sketch of Malouf’s creative career and a discussion of Malouf’s persistent interest in the theme of Australian home making. After a general overview of some of the Malouf criticism published in recent years, an analysis is given of the three-stage process of home-making for colonial settlers, and an introduction is given to Malouf’s personal approach to Australian home construction.Chapter Two gives a close reading of Remembering Babylon (1993), in which Malouf looks at the white immigrants’treatment of the Aboriginal people in 19th century Australia. Malouf believes that there were two types of attitudes possible at the time: one was treating them with violence (including direct violence which aims at genocide, structural violence that advocates the exploitation of the indigenous population and cultural violence that seeks justification for colonial oppression); the other is taking responsibility for and looking after them. Malouf’s personal preference is for the latter because the indigenous people represent a kind of authentic existence. Malouf unveils the cruelty of colonialism and its barbarity, and he contends that only a responsible attitude can help to build a harmonious relationship between the white and the black.Chapter Three discusses Malouf’s Fly Away, Peter (1982) and The Conversations at Curlow Creek (1996), both of which examine the problematics of home construction for white Australian settlers while they try to come to terms with Australian land and landscape. The metropolitan immigrants in both novels experience a process of development from anxiety to epiphany before they ultimately realize a positive relationship between man and Australian wilderness. Malouf lays bare the anthropocentrism in some Euro-Australians’fascination with“disenchanted nature”and encourages Australians to“embrace the wilderness”.Chapter Four examines Johnno(1975)and Harland’s Half Acre (1984) in which Malouf looks at the question of how Australian writers and artists should deal with Australian life. If home-making involves an indispensible grasp of the Australian continent through the help of culture (literature and art in particular), Malouf points to the havoc caused with the Australian morale by Australian cultural cringe in the face of metropolitan culture. He argues that Australian writers and artists would not feel at home unless they have thoroughly overcome their inferiority complex.Chapter Five looks at The Great World (1990), in which Malouf gives his reflections on how the Australians have defined their national identity and constructed their home in history. Australians, according to Malouf, have tried to come to terms with the continent through material possession, which finally proves to be an illusion, and to him, a rare few of them have also tried to achieve a close relationship with the country through imagination and memory. Malouf also points to some of the ways in which Australians have defined their national identity (the Anzac Myth), and criticizes the claustrophobic nature of all of them. In this novel, he proposes that the future of the Australians’home-making lies in giving up their self-quarantining and is opening themselves to“the great world”.In Chapter Six (“Conclusion”), I contend that Malouf distinguishes himself from Patrick White, the first Australian winner of the Noble Prize for Literature, by taking a profound interest in the idea of home-making in post-colonial Australia. Malouf’s novels all have a metaphysical aspect but he is perennially looking at the concrete problems of the country he lives in. He pays much attention to the inner world of the ordinary, and he is concerned with his fellow Australians’struggles in pursuit of a spiritual as well as physical home. To him, Australian home-making is about feeling home in Australia. His concern for universal themes is deeply rooted in Australian reality.