Pages From Claire O'Callaghan PDF

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The Little Stranger –A study of the heteropatriarchal male and

the dynamics of masculine domination

Told through the eyes of General Practitioner Dr Faraday, The Little Stranger (2009)—

Waters’s third novel to be nominated for the prestigious Man Booker prize—charts the

demise of the Ayres family of Hundreds Hall. Faraday is called to Hundreds (as it is

affectionately known) in 1947 to treat an “ill” maidservant, Betty, and finds that the Hall,

once a grandiose stately country house he fondly remembers from his childhood, is now

dilapidated—both it and its inhabitants, the widowed Mrs Ayres and her adult children,

Roderick and Caroline, exist in a state of decay. He befriends the family, becoming a regular

visitor to the Hall, but he soon comes to play an important role in the tragedies that befall the

Ayres, which, initially, are attributed to a poltergeist– the little stranger of the novel’s title.

First Roderick undergoes a mental breakdown of sorts and is hospitalized in nearby

Leamington Spa, before then Mrs Ayres suffers a similar breakdown and commits suicide.

That leaves Caroline, the sole heir to the Hall, who plans to marry Faraday, but quickly

abandons this idea in favour of relocation to Canada. Before she does so, however, she, too,

succumbs to tragedy; she is found dead at the bottom of the Hall’s lavish staircase

mysteriously having been overheard calling out ‘you’ before falling to her death (Waters

2009a: 482). The novel ends with the house empty and Faraday in a self-appointed role as

caretaker, unable discern if Hundreds was ever truly haunted by a ghost that caused the

tragedies.

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What’s particularly significant about The Little Stranger is that not only is Faraday

Waters’s first male narrator, but there are no overt homosexuals in the text.

Her move away

from an explicit lesbian subject matter is a significant departure from her earlier works and it

is tempting to read this choice as a questioning of the epistemology and ontology of the

category “lesbian” that considers what being a lesbian means in both theory and textual

practice. I do not pursue this particular avenue here, but I do wish to focus on the significance

of Waters’s authorial decision to narrate this novel through the first-person perspective of a

heterosexual male subject.

This chapter proposes that The Little Stranger constitutes a study in masculinity,

specifically heteropatriarchal masculinity, the mechanisms by which it is “formed” (for want

of a better term) and its modes of operation. As Marianne Hester puts it, ‘to analyse and

understand male supremacy, we need to study men: their behaviours, sexuality, institutions,

and so on, because that is where the power lies’ (1992: 3). Reflecting Hester’s important

point, I argue that the novel offers an account of the insidious nature of heteropatriarchal

domination and an expose of gendered violence towards, and against, “non-normative”

gendered and sexual subjects. The “non-normative” individuals here are represented by

Roderick and Caroline who, I suggest, like Vivian in The Night Watch, are queer

heterosexual figures as they too defy, in various ways, the normative conventions of gender

and sexuality, troubling (to use a Butlerian term) Faraday’s heteropatriarchal ideals. In

privileging a heteropatriarchal perspective, Waters offers a subtle analysis of the politics of

male heterosexuality, revealing the phallonarcissistic vision and androcentric cosmology of

heteropatriarchal men. Through the novel she sets out the process by which men sometimes

“morph” into domineering heteropatriarchal figures, and represents the gendered and sexual

means by which such dominant male figure wield power over “non-normative” subjects. Via

the events which befall the Ayres family, Waters subtly combines feminist and queer

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critiques of heteropatriarchy, its pernicious means of operation, and the distorted means by

which “non-normative” gendered and sexual subjects (male and female alike) are often

suffocated beneath the weight of heteropatriarchal oppression.

Unlike The Night Watch, The Little Stranger is not a novel about the sexual margins

to which “non-normative” gendered and sexual subjects are relegated but rather, focused on

the sexual centre that gives those margins their shape. As chapter four suggested, without an

understanding of the dominant gendered and sexual culture, it is impossible to understand the

depth of resistance engaged in by straight women, lesbians, gay men, and others who have

long been unwilling or unable to conform to prevailing definitions of gender and sexual

normality and the social regulations imposed upon them to (re)produce that normality in the

first place. As such, Waters’s fifth novel provides a literary response to Eve Kosofsky

Sedgwick’s contention that:

an understanding of virtually any aspect of modern Western culture must be, not

merely incomplete, but damaged in its central substance to the degree that it does not

incorporate a critical analysis of modern homo/heterosexual definition (1990: 1).

Sedgwick’s comment is important in reinforcing how heterosexuality as an institution

depends on homosexuality as a means to define and sustain ‘the fictions of its identity’

(Carroll 2012: 6).

Importantly, Stevi Jackson has argued that second-wave feminism ‘failed to fully

problematise heterosexuality’ and illuminate it ‘as an organising institution’, identity, sexual

practice and experience that is ‘organised around a hetero/homo binary, a symmetrical and

oppositional coupling of a marginal category (homosexuality) and a privileged class’ (1999:

2; Yep 2003: 12). As Diane Richardson notes, ‘within social and political theory little

attention has traditionally been given to theorizing heterosexuality’ more broadly, despite the

fact that it is ‘deeply embedded in accounts of social and political participation’ (1996: 1).

Overview

Pages From Claire O'Callaghan

Explore the insights and themes presented in Claire O'Callaghan's work, which delves into contemporary issues and personal narratives. This collection highlights O'Callaghan's unique voice and perspective, making it a valuable read for those interested in modern literature. Ideal for students and enthusiasts of literary analysis, the pages offer a rich exploration of character development and thematic depth. Engage with the text to uncover the nuances of O'Callaghan's storytelling and its relevance in today's context. Key Points Analyzes contemporary themes in Claire O'Callaghan's writing Explores character development and narrative style Provides insights for literary analysis and discussion Highlights O'Callaghan's unique voice and perspective

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