AustLit

'With reference to Roland Barthes’s and Julia Kristeva’s observations on the bodily origins of language, this article argues that physicality is an important aspect, both thematically and stylistically, of the fiction of Australian Nobel prizewinner, Patrick White. Kristeva’s theory of the “symbolic” and “semiotic” aspects of signification, developed in her book Revolution in Poetic Language (1984), informs the argument that White’s writing emphasises a dualism of rationality and physicality at work within language and literature. Taking Kristeva’s observation that the “semiotic” or bodily aspect of language – evident in asymbolic poetic effects such as rhythm and rhyme – is comparable to music, the article explores White’s interest in music as expressed within his fiction. It argues, accordingly, that White’s frequent descriptions of music function as metatextual elements within his writing that draw attention to the materiality of language, the poetic dimension of his prose, and his association of representation with corporeality. Finally, in a reading of the short story “Five-Twenty”, from the collection The Cockatoos ([1974]1979), White’s interest in corporeal markings – which emphasise signification as bodily and corporeality as a language – is explored.' (Publication summary)