AustLit

'Over the last thirty years, Janette Turner Hospital has produced an oeuvre of work that is predominantly dark and unsettling. Many societies are presented as rigidly hierarchical and compartmentalized. Status and even identity are most often determined by the accidents of birth and circumstance. Perpetual conflict rages among the various factions and horrendous crimes are committed both globally and domestically against innocent individuals. However, as this article will demonstrate, though thoroughly acknowledging its might, these novels are not entirely resigned to the immutability of the status quo. Throughout her canon, Turner Hospital explores a sublet form of power that belongs principally to women. In the majority of works, at least one woman is able continuously and seamlessly to move from one class, creed or nation to another. Their peregrinations and metamorphoses reveal potentialities for cultural and political systems that seek to enforce division. From The Ivory Swing (1992) to The Claimant (2014), this article traces the means employed to such women to achieve the truth and justice they so earnestly desire set against the backdrop of the general bleakness.' (116)