Drawn to the slaughter : violence in jazz novels

Abstract

This two-part thesis examines the representation of jazz musicians and violence through a critical study and a short novel, 'Swing'. The interaction between the two parts of the thesis manifests itself through the exploration of three key areas common to both: the relationship between violence and music; the novel as a vehicle for the representation of jazz; and the characterisation of the jazz life. In the critical study, I argue that novels about jazz musicians frequently include some violence in one or more of three forms: systemic violence; intimate violence; and performative violence. Systemic violence refers to social and political violations relating to race, gender and economics. Intimate violence relates to self-harm and violence towards friends and relations. Finally, performative violence is a term for any violence that occurs to, through or by musicians in the act of performance. Performative violence is the least common form of violence in these novels, yet it is often the most powerful. This is because the representation of violence through performance has the capacity to simultaneously reflect the social and personal history of the performer, while also exploring the musicians' potential to create new sounds through the destruction of conventional ideas. The benefits of using this theoretical framework as the basis for the approach to the study of these novels are threefold. Firstly, this framework allows for an examination of how the personal and social history of these characters affects their music. Secondly, through the examination of intimate violence, it is possible to address how and why recurring themes of self-harm and obsession are perpetuated through the novels. Finally, the framework gives significant import to the concept of performative violence, which enables a discussion of the relationship between the performer and the audience. I suggest that authors who explore the lives of jazz musicians use violence or destruction as a metaphorical tool to aid the representation of the creative process. Characters in jazz novels break apart their music and often their lives to develop new sounds and explore new ways of living. This results in a narrative pattern of destructive events that lead to creative acts. The violence or destruction does not occur in the same way in every novel, and nor does it necessarily with the same narrative purpose, but there are themes and stylistic tendencies that are common. Michael Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter is a pivotal text in this study. The other novels that have formed the basis of the analysis include Dorothy Baker's Young Man with a Horn (1938), Ann Petry's The Street (1946), John Clellon Homes' The Horn (1958), Herbert Simmons' Man Walking on Eggshells (1962), James Baldwin's Another Country (1962), Jackie Kay's Trumpet (1998), Bart Schneider's Blue Bossa (1998) and Rafi Zabor's The Bear Comes Home (1998). 'Swing' is a novel that was written in response to the jazz fiction of the twentieth century. It follows a year in the life of an Australian double-bass player, Chester Nelson, who is a mediocre performer struggling to balance the different styles of jazz that he performs. Chester is violent at times, but does not always remember what he has done, and as a result both his music and his relationships become unpredictable and unsustainable. By incorporating modes of violence and attempting to write against stereotypes, I present a less romanticised perspective on the life of a jazz musician, while maintaining an element of drama and examining the complexities of psychological deterioration. Both the novel and the critical study examine the representation of the social history of jazz, the personal conflict of the characters and the technical and aural qualities of the music. Through the consideration of these narrative elements, it has become evident that the literary representation of jazz is an ideal subject through which authors can explore how violence may lead to creativity. ACCESS TO VOLUME 1 ONLY

Date of Award	2013
Original language	English