“Four hundred years ago a baby went to
sleep”: Restoring the past and recovering identity in Lucy Boston’s Green
Knowe novels.
Project summary:
This thesis will argue that Boston’s use of
time, place and the pastoral form in her Green Knowe series establishes
a strong sense that individual identity and belonging is significantly shaped
by a sense of continuity with the past – a sense of oneself as a link in a
temporal chain of family, events and landscape – and furthermore, that this
feeling of ‘owning’ the past as valuable heritage is necessary to an
individual’s security and confidence in their sense of self and belonging.
Aims and Significance:
Through an analysis of the six Green
Knowe novels, this thesis will develop a coherent picture of the
significance of the use of ‘Global Time’, presentation of the Green Knowe
manor, and reworking of the pastoral form (both ironic and romantic) in these
texts. While previous studies of the Green Knowe books have examined
each of these three themes (time, place, and the pastoral) in isolation (see,
eg. Cameron (1969), Buckalew (1994), Stott (1983)), and sometimes made the move
to study the relationship to identity and belonging, there has been no extended
study that links all three treatments under a common thesis. This thesis is
significant in that it will make these connections in relation to the texts’
emphasis on the role of the past in shaping our identities.
After exploring and narrowing what I mean
by identity, sense of self, and belonging in this context, I will firstly
contend that Boston’s use of Global Time – all times present and accessible in
one moment – establishes a way to recover an individual's continuity with their
past, restoring a security of identity threatened by unknown or severed links
with their sense of heritage. Secondly, I will propose that Boston's depiction
of the Green Knowe manor works both as a physical receptacle and symbolic
representation of the past, while also providing a 'place' for Boston’s
'dis-placed' child characters to belong to. Finally, I will argue that while
the Green Knowe series appears to
follow the conventions of pastoralism, it is in the end a significant reworking
of this tradition. By allowing, at the end of the six book series, the manor to
have survived all threats to its existence, I will argue that the texts do not
conclude with an ironic destruction of the pastoral world, and neither with the
romantic reassurance that it will always remain. Rather, I will demonstrate,
the texts suggest that a deep experience of the pastoral world allows the
individual sense of belonging and
identity to survive the inevitable eventual destruction of the physical
pastoral world in which they were developed.
Overall, I will demonstrate how the
mingling of past and present, the notion that place can evoke a sense of
belonging for those in need, and the preservation of the pastoral state within
the scope of the narrative all move towards a reinstatement of the past as
valued heritage in order to give continuity, a sense of belonging, and a sense
of identity back to individuals threatened by the devaluing and destruction of
their links to and sense of the past.
Methods:
Primary texts:
Lucy Boston’s six novel series, comprise of
(in chronological order): The Children of
Green Knowe, The Chimneys of Green Knowe, The River at Green Knowe, The
Stranger at Green Knowe, An Enemy at Green Knowe, The Stones of Green Knowe.
These will be the most important primary
texts as they form the main textual focus of my thesis. However, not every book
is relevant to each of the three themes I will be examining. Children,
Chimneys and Stones will be most important to my examination of
time, Children, and Stranger to my investigation of place, and Stranger,
Enemy and Stones to my examination of the pastoral. River,
generally acknowledged as the ‘square peg’ of the series, will be of occasional
relevance only.
Secondary texts:
Central to my investigation of time in the Green
Knowe novels will be Eleanor Cameron’s book The Green and Burning Tree,
and Mary Buckalew’s article “Global Time in Lucy Boston’s Green Knowe
Novellas”, which are the most detailed treatments to date of the use of time in
the Green Knowe series, although in no way interchangeable in outlook.
Buckalew explores Global Time (her term which I will appropriate for my
writing) as time as ‘God’ beholds it –
that is, time looked at from the perspective of Eternity. Her detailed
exploration of the symbolism of Global Time in the books will be indispensable,
she does not, however, link it as I will to development of a sense identity and
belonging in the characters. Cameron’s book (the relevant chapter of which
provides the title of the book itself), is an investigation of the mingling of
the past and present – what she terms ‘the green and burning tree’ - in children’s fantasy. This classic study,
much praised and disputed by later critics, is especially interesting as it does
to link the use of time to the development of a sense of belonging (though she
does not link it to identity) in the characters of Boston’s novels.
Although nearly every piece of writing on
Lucy Boston explores to some extent the presence of the Green Knowe manor in
her books, Lynne Rosenthal’s “The Development of Consciousness in Lucy Boston’s
The Children of Green Knowe” will especially inform my study of the
relationship between the Green Knowe manor and the development of sense of self
of the texts’ characters. Although I find her psychoanalytic perspective rather
forced upon the books, she does provide a useful and rare investigation into
the need to ‘own’ one’s heritage in order to develop a fully rounded identity.
Linda Hall’s “The Pattern of Dead and Living: Lucy Boston and the Necessity of
Continuity” will also be useful to my study of the manor. Hall’s reading of the
manor as a response to post World War II disregard for antiquity will help me
to situate temporally the context of the texts’ preoccupation with maintaining
the past in regards to maintaining the self. Also useful is “A message from
Green Knowe”, Boston’s own article about the Green Knowe manor, and its real
life counterpart where she lived at Hemingford Grey.
A more contentious area of secondary
literature concerns whether the Green Knowe series is an example of the
pastoral form. Maria Nikolajeva’s book From Mythic to Linear: Time in
children’s literature provides, with its examination of some general
features of both romantic and ironic versions of the pastoral, an excellent
basis for my definition of the literary form. Long-time commentator Peter
Hollindale’s essay “Timescape at Hemingford Grey: Lucy Boston’s Centenary”
argues that the series has a pessimistic trajectory (and as such could fit into
the ironic pastoral form), and in her aforementioned article Lynne Rosenthal
declares that – regardless of the series’ conclusion - the world of Green Knowe
is not pastoral at all. I will disagree with both viewpoints, and argue that,
in line with Jon Stott’s essay “From Here to Eternity: Aspects of the Pastoral
in the Green Knowe Series” that the world of Green Knowe is a
pastoral one, but one which rewrites the tradition into a positive progression
that is certainly not ironic, but neither is it romantic. I will draw from
Stott my notion that a deep experience of the pastoral world ensures an
individual will always remain a part of it, but move beyond his article to
suggest that this in turn implies that the sense of identity and belonging
individuals develop there will also remain.
Approach:
My thesis will primarily use the approach
of literary textual analysis, under the three thematic divisions of time, place
and pastoral form. Adopting this thematic approach will be the most suitable
way of structuring my thesis, as not every novel relates to all three themes -
a text by text analysis would be inappropriate, and also unwieldy due to the
number of books involved. Focusing on
these three themes will also allow me to relate each one as I go with my
overall contention that the Green Knowe books suggest a need to restore
the past, to ‘own’ it as heritage and in doing so develop and ensure individual
identity and belonging threatened by destruction of the past in both its
physical and remembered forms.
Key terms:
- pastoral form: a pattern of
narrative where a character enters and becomes part of an ideal place, and sees
outside forces attempt to destroy it. I will separate the ironic form (in which
the pastoral world is destroyed, and the character emerges wiser and sadder to
face the outside world), and the romantic pastoral (where the ideal pastoral
setting is allowed to survive threats to its existence, and is by implication
then safe forever).
- Global Time: all times present and
accessible in one moment, a mingling of past times with the present.
- past and heritage: I will
distinguish ‘past’ – a general term for events gone before, from ‘heritage’ –
where these events are associated with a feeling of ‘owning’ them as one’s own
personal history.
- identity/sense of self: a secure
and developed notion of one’s personal characteristics, a confidence in one’s
place in the world in relation to other people.
- belonging: a feeling of
contentment and being ‘at home’ that is inherently tied to a place or group of
people, but can be extended to a more abstract confidence of one’s ‘place in
the world’.
Chapters:
I anticipate three chapters, one each for a
study of time, place and the pastoral form in the novels. Below is a brief,
point form plan of each.
Chapter 1: TIME
(1)recovering continuity with past, recovering
security & identity.
-
Concept of Global Time in
General - Cameron’s Green & Burning Tree/Buckalew’s Globe of Time
-
Theories of Global Time:
philosophical versions, ‘God’s’ perspective of time.
-
Doubles as non-fantastic
forerunners of Global Time.
-
Reflections as symbols of
Global Time. Mirrors. Doubles.
-
Global Time establishes
continuity of individual as a link in a temporal historical chain, restores
sense of identity, belonging. This is a gentle process.
(2) Conduits/Time Objects.
-
Important to belonging is a
connection with a past unified and accessible. Global Time provides literal
access to past.
-
Part of the access to Global
time involves conduits:
- talismans/time objects as conduits.
- elderly people as conduits.
-
Concept of kairos (mythic
time). Evoked by ritual (eg. story-telling) – another form of conduit.
-
Relationship of these time
objects /conduits to identity/belonging: Connecting self to the past (here
literally) through objects, elders.
(3) Attitude/receptiveness.
-
Not everyone has access to
Global Time: individuals need to be solitary, displaced, receptive, patient.
When they do experience it, it is breathtakingly joyous and beautiful – the
gentleness of the process is emphasised - identity formation here is not a
violent process.
-
Blood connection or ‘being
born’ at Green Knowe helps an individual to experience Global Time – but it is
not essential. Receptiveness to the past and a love of antiquity is more
important.
Chapter 2: PLACE
(1)
Green Knowe &
gardens as a symbol & receptacle of past.
-
Context of time of writing: in
WWII aftermath: buildings that were destroyed in England were not rebuilt as
replicas (as in other countries) but as concrete blocks - the past was wiped
out.
-
Green Knowe books partially as a response to loss of landscape, to changes
modern progress was making to ancient rhythms of landscape and community.
-
Place holds traces and memories
of all who have lived there – a wealth of kinship, history of identities to
help define one’s own relative place.
-
Green Knowe as a symbol of
continuity - the existence of the house as rescuing a past that was under
threat. It is a boundary to the timelessness it encloses; a refuge, sanctuary.
-
Roger’s reaction to 20th
century.
(2)Place
for the displaced, sanctuary.
-
The use of displaced children –
physically and spiritually. These children come to Green Knowe and find there a
home and sense of belonging. The most obviously displaced are Jacob, Ping,
Oskar, Tolly, Hanno, but also Ida, Susan. Roger, Toby, Alexander and Linnet are
different – secure in their place and identity, they have lived at Green Knowe
since they were born.
-
Depiction of the response of
the house to those who come to it – for each individual it becomes their own in
a different way, providing them with what they need to see it as home, to make
it their own.
-
House as refuge for wildlife.
(3) Threats
-
Increasingly more threats to
house arise over the series. Green Knowe is a catalyst for finding one’s sense
of belonging and self, but what happens when the house is threatened with
destruction? This will bring me to chapter three – pastoralism.
(1)
Series reworks it
subtly but significantly.
-
What pastoral tradition
involves.
-
Ironic pastoral form – ends
with destruction of the pastoral world.
-
Romantic pastoral form –
preserves state of innocence.
-
Nikolajeva: Odyssean, Oedipal,
Promethean patterns in the pastoral form.
-
How Green Knowe series
rewrites the form, does not fit comfortably into either ironic or romantic pastoral:
- Arc of 6 books at first seems to follow pastoral conventions.
- Children and Chimneys – integration
into pastoral world.
- Stranger and Enemy suggest
increasingly greater threats.
- Stones should culminate in house’s
destruction, Tolly should emerge wider and sadder into adult world, but Boston
instead allows it to survive the threats.
-
The pastoral world of Green Knowe during the series departs from pastoral
tradition: There is death and anger in the world of Green Knowe.
(2)Arguments
that Green Knowe is not pastoral, or fits the ironic tradition.
-
Arguments that the world of
Green Knowe is not pastoral. I disagree: threats to Green Knowe are always from
the outside – not from within.
-
Arguments that the series does
fit the ironic pastoral, that it finishes with a bitter acknowledgement
that the pastoral world cannot survive. I disagree: within the scope of the
books, enemies have not triumphed. Texts rather suggest that a deep experience
of the past and the pastoral world, and the identity and sense of belonging
developed through this experience, is internalised and no longer dependent on
the pastoral world existing.
Annotated Bibilography:
Aers, Lesley. “The Treatment of Time in
Four Children’s Books.” Children’s Literature in Education 2 (July
1970): 69-81.
Boethius. The Consolations of Philosophy.
Trans. VE Watts. London: Penguin Books, 1969.
Boston, L.M. The Children of Green Knowe. London: Faber & Faber, 1954.
— The
Chimneys of Green Knowe. London: Faber & Faber, 1958.
— The
River at Green Knowe. London: Faber & Faber, 1959.
— The
Stranger at Green Knowe. London: Faber & Faber, 1961.
— An
Enemy at Green Knowe. London: Faber & Faber, 1964.
— The
Stones of Green Knowe. London: Bodley Head, 1976.
— “A Message from Green Knowe.” The
Cool Web: The Pattern of Children’s Reading. Ed. Margaret Meek, Aidan
Warlow, and Griselda Barton. London: The Bodley Head, 1977. 216-220.
Buckalew, Mary. “Global Time in Lucy
Boston’s Green Knowe Novellas.” Children’s Literature Association
Quarterly 19:4 (winter 1994-1995): 182-187.
- A very detailed study of the use of
Global Time, this article makes connections to philosophy and religion in an
attempt to explain the notion..
Cameron, Eleanor. The Green and Burning
Tree: On the Writing and Enjoyment of Children’s Books. Boston: Little
Brown and Company, 1969.
- A classic study, the chapter which gives
the book its title examines Global Time, and links it to characters’ developing
a sense of belonging. Written before the publication of Stones, it is
interesting to note that many of her predictions hold true for Boston’s final
novel.
Eliade, Mircea. The Myth of the Eternal Return. Trans. Willard R Trask. New
York NY: Pantheon Books, 1954.
Eliade, Mircea. Myth and Reality.
London: George Allen & Unwin, 1964.
Hall, Linda. “The Pattern of Dead and
Living: Lucy Boston and the Necessity of Continuity.” Children’s Literature
in Education 29:4 (1998): 223-235.
- A rare and useful investigation into the
need for a sense of heritage in order to fully develop one’s own identity.
Hollindale, Peter. “Timescape at Hemingford
Grey: Lucy Boston’s Centenary.” Children’s Literature 22 (1984):
139-148.
Krips, Valerie. “Presencing the Past.” Signal 90 (September 1999): 176-86.
Kuznets, Lois R. “The Fresh-Air Kids, or
Some Contemporary Versions of the Pastoral.” Children’s Literature 11
(1983): 156-170.
Nikolajeva, Maria. From Mythic to
Linear: Time in Children’s Literature. Lanham MD: The Scarecrow Press,
2000.
- While providing a useful study of kairos
or mythic time, this book has sections on the pastoral that are also very
informative.
Rees, David. Painted Desert, Green
Shade: Essays on Contemporary Writers of Fiction for Children and Young Adults.
Boston: The Horn Book Inc, 1984.
Rosenthal, Lynne. “The Development of
Consciousness in Lucy Boston’s The Children of Green Knowe” in Children’s
Literature 8 (1980): 53-67.
Scott, Carole. “A Century of Dislocated
Time: Time Travel, Magic and the Search for the Self,”Papers: Explorations
into Children’s Literature 6:2 (August 1996): 14-20.
- Interestingly, Scott’s distinction
between ‘early century’ and ‘late century’ fantasy specifically denies that the
Green Knowe series involves any development of sense of self in its
characters – the complete opposite to my contention. I will argue against her
view.
Smedman, M Sarah. “Springs of Hope:
Recovery of Primordial Time in ‘Mythic’ Novels for Young Readers.” Children’s
Literature 16 (1998): 91-107.
Stott, Jon C. “From Here to Eternity:
Aspects of the Pastoral in the Green Knowe Series.” Children’s
Literature 11 (1983): 145-155.
- The model for my study of the pastoral in
Green Knowe, this article argues that Boston subtly rewrites the
pastoral form.
Townsend, John Rowe. A Sense of Story:
Essays on Contemporary Writers for Children. London: Longman Group, 1971.
