Reading Corporeality in Patrick White’s Fiction: An Abject Dictatorship of the Flesh

In Reading Corporeality in Patrick White’s Fiction: An Abject Dictatorship of the Flesh, Bridget Grogan combines theoretical explication, textual comparison, and close reading to argue that corporeality is central to Patrick White’s fiction, shaping the characterization, style, narrative trajectories, and implicit philosophy of his novels and short stories. Critics have often identified a radical disgust at play in White’s writing, claiming that it arises from a defining dualism that posits the ‘purity’ of the disembodied ‘spirit’ in relation to the ‘pollution’ of the material world. Grogan argues convincingly, however, that White’s fiction is far more complex in its approach to the body. Modeling ways in which Kristevan theory may be applied to modern fiction, her close attention to White’s recurring interest in physicality and abjection draws attention to his complex questioning of metaphysics and subjectivity, thereby providing a fresh and compelling reading of this important world author.