Houston, if you read

Abstract

The focus of my thesis is on characters whose past lives have a vibrancy and consequence that their present and future lives are unable to match, characters who must move forward through life with the knowledge that their most important contribution to history and humanity is behind them. The exegetical component of this thesis centres on Michael Ondaatje’s 2018 historical novel Warlight, and explores the reflexive processes of historical fiction. Ondaatje’s narrator lives in the shadows of World War Two and only emerges from the past through the act of narrativizing it. Nathaniel’s storying of the past is conditioned by the limited knowability of history. He must contend with gaps in archival sources and absences in subjective memory that stymie his efforts to understand what has happened to him. Nathaniel’s search for a meaningful narrative of past events reflects on the unavoidably suppositional character of historical writing, exemplifying Hilary Mantel’s suggestion that historical fiction converges with historiography. Nathaniel’s efforts to make sense of the past from the point of view of the present commits him to elements of narrative form (such as point of view, character, sense of place, etc.). In order to make sense of himself in the present, for example, he must make sense of the motivations and choices of the people who have shaped his past. In the version of history Nathaniel must invent to overcome his past, Warlight offers narrative fiction as a way of coming to terms with the people and events that are no longer accessible. The creative component of this thesis is a work of historical fiction focussed on two characters who, as young adults, were active participants in two of the world-changing events of the twentieth century. In 1969, an Australian man who flew Lancaster Bombers in combat during World War Two watches the Moon landing on a television in a department store window. In 1989, a Texan woman who worked on the mathematics that made the Apollo Program possible watches the end of the Cold War in a bureaucrat’s office. In their middle-age these characters are confronted with the challenge of making meaningful lives in the present that can never have the same intensity or sense of purpose they once had in their past. A common sentiment expressed in oral histories recording the memories and experiences of World War Two veterans and workers on the Apollo Program is that no time in their lives could ever be as meaningful, important or exciting as that time. This work depicts moments from the characters’ youth when they are active participants in world-changing events, and moments from the characters’ middle-aged lives, when they feel like distant and uninvolved witnesses to history.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University