POSTFEMINIST DIVISION IN GEORGIA BLAIN’S TOO CLOSE TO HOME AND acnaGGY FREW’S HOUSE OF STICKS

Abstract

Throughout 20th century Australian novels, suburbs were often described as female areas, as opposed to masculine urban or jungle landscapes. The suburban home environment is trivial, ironic, or neglected because it’s a place that doesn’t fit the transition narrative—a place to escape. Traditionally, male protagonists begin these flight narratives, while female characters endure the boring life of “domestic integration” in the suburbs. It was not until the second wave of feminism in the 1970s and 1980s that female writers were liberated from the “cages” in the suburbs and became female protagonists, many of whom identify as feminist. Recently, “postfeminist” scholars such as Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, Mary Vavrus and Susan J. Douglas observed the rise of a “retreatist” narrative in popular media such as “chick-lit”, TV series and movies. This public restorative narrative often describes the female protagonist’s rejection of the public (assumedly male) realm and returns to the more family (assumedly female) realm as the final solution to the problematic “incompleteness” state. This article explores contemporary expressions and narrative techniques of female protagonists in the home, suburban environment of Georgia Blain’s Too Close to Home and Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks, published in 2011. Of particular interest is the evidence that rejecting, questioning or subverting this “retreatist” narrative is a viable feminist solution, or alternatively, a more creative reimagination of the suburban environment to achieve “new” narratives of feminine transformation.