Theodora as an Unheard Prophetess in Patrick White’s The Aunt’s Story

Abstract

This essay takes into consideration some of the themes dear to Veronica Bradys heart and present in her profound critical analysis of Australian literature. Veronica often read Patrick Whites work in the light of a spiritual quest and a mystical-mythical vision. Aim of this essay is to investigate how the figure of the aunt, in The Aunts Story (1948), embodies one of the isolated and visionary characters in Whites work who transmits a message that superficial contemporary society is unable to understand. I will show how Theodora Goodmans role as explorer in the inner land of the Self connects her with ancient partnership (Eisler 1987), Goddess archetypes, in particular that of the Crone, embodying a woman of age, wisdom and power (Bolen 2001). This figure had an important but now forgotten role in ancient gylanic societies (Eisler 1987). Theadora, the Goddess gift, as the protagonists name should read, is a powerful reminder of the sacred spiritual function of ancient women-priestess. Theodora is Theadora, a priestess beloved by the Goddess. Contemporary society, being unable to see beyond the ordinary, can only catalogue these sacred figures as mad.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-41

Bibliography

A Conversation with Patrick White. 1973. Australian Writers in Profile. Southerly, 3: 132-143.

Ashcroft, Bill. 2014. Horizons of Hope. Vanden Driesen Cynthia & Bill Ashcroft eds. Patrick White Centenary. The Legacy of a Prodigal Son. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 22-42.

Bliss, Caroline. 1992. Patrick Whites Fiction, The Paradox of Fortunate Failure. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bolen, Shinoda Jean. 1984. Goddesses in Every Woman. A New Psychology of Women. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Bolen, Jean Shinoda. 2001. Goddesses in Older Women. Archetypes in Women over Fifty. New York: HarperCollins.

Brady, Veronica. 1978. The Novelist and the Reign of Necessity: Patrick White and Simone Weil. Patrick White. A Critical Symposium. R. Shepherd & K. Singh eds. Adelaide: Centre for Research in New Literatures in English, 108-116.

Brady, Veronica, 1981. A Crucible of Prophets, Australians and the Question of God. Sydney: Australian and NewZealand Studies in Theology and Religion [chapter 4, Patrick White and the Difficult God, 69-89].

Brady, Veronica. 1992. To Be Or Not To Be? The Verbal History of Patrick White. Westerly, 2 (winter): 23-34.

Corbin, Henri. 1979. Corps Spirituel et Terre Céleste. Paris: Buchet-Chastel.

Devlin-Glass, Frances & Lyn McCreddon eds. 2001. Feminist Poetic of the Sacred. Creative Sus- picions. Oxford: University Press.

Docker, John. 1973. Patrick White and Romanticism: The Vivisector. Southerly, 33, 1: 44-61.

Douglas J. Brewer & Emily Teeter. 2001. Egypt and the Egyptians. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eisler, Riane. 1987. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Foucault Michel. 1972. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason [Folie et Déraison: Histoire de la folie à lâge classique]. New York: Random Vintage.

Hardgraft, Cecil. 1977. The Theme of Revelation in Patrick Whites Novels. Southerly, 37, 1: 34-47.

Jones, Gail. 2015. Desperate, Marvellous, Shuttling: Whites Ambivalent Modernism. Patrick White Beyond the Grave. Henderson & Lang, 155-162.

Lang, Anouk. 2015. Queering Sarsaparilla: Patrick Whites Deviant Modernism. Patrick White Beyond the Grave. Henderson & Lang, 193-204.

Lohoar Shaun, Nick Butera & Edita Kennedy. 2014. Strengths of Australian Aboriginal Cultural Practices in Family Life And Child Rearing. CFCA (Child Family Community Australia) paper no. 25, 1-20. September 2014 https://aifs.gov.au/ cfca/sites/default/files/publica-tion-documents/cfca25.pdf (consulted on 10 May 2016).

McLaren, John. 2014. Patrick White: Crossing the Boundaries. Patrick White Centenary. The Legacy of a Prodigal Son. Vanden Driesen & Ashcroft, 82-97.

Morley, Patricia. 1972. The Mystery of Unity. Brisbane, St. Lucia (QLD): University of Queensland Press.

Panaghis, Afroditi. 1997. Questing for Identity in Patrick Whites The Aunts Story. The International Fiction Review, 30-35.

Pearson, Carol S. 1991. Awakening the Heroes Within. Twelve Archetype to Help us Transform Ourselves and Our World. San Francisco: HarperCollins. New York: Harper & Row.

Riem, Antonella. 2014. The Spirit of the Creative Word in Patrick Whites Voss. Patrick White Centenary. The Legacy of a Prodigal Son. Vanden Driesen & Ashcroft, 222-240.

Sjöö, Monica & Barbara Mor. 1987. The Great Cosmic Mother. Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Walker, Barbara. 1985. The Crone. Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power. New York: HarperCollins. White, Patrick. 1959 [1st ed. 1948]. The Aunts Story. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.

White Patrick. 1958. The Prodigal Son. Australian Letters, 1, 3: 37-40 [also reprinted in Christine Flyn & Paul Brennan eds. 1989. Patrick White Speaks. Sydney: Primavera Press: 13-17].

Wittman, Aruna. 2015. The Doubling of Reality in Patrick Whites The Aunts Story and Paul Schrebers Memoirs of My Nervous Illness. Patrick White Beyond the Grave. Henderson & Lang, 141-154.

Wolfe, Peter. 1983. Laden Choirs: The Fiction of Patrick White. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

WEBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Goodman (consulted on 26 April 2016).

http://www.rianeeisler.com/ (consulted on 26 April 2016).

http://all.uniud.it/?page_id=195 (consulted on 26 April 2016).

www.forumeditrice.it/percorsi/lingua-e-letteratura/all/ (consulted on 26 April 2016).

http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/henson/ (consulted on 26 April 2016).