Twigs from a hedge in winter: an Australian gothic novel.

Abstract

After completing the first draft of ‘Twigs from a Hedge in Winter’, I discovered that my novel contained several elements that placed it within the Gothic genre. Wanting to account for how this happened, I decided to research the genre. In this exegesis I pose the following questions: what defines the Gothic genre and what are the Gothic elements in arguably the world’s first example, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto. I ask if these can be traced in early Australian literature through to Elizabeth Harrower’s The Watch Tower, Elizabeth Jolley’s The Well and Sonya Hartnett’s Surrender. I examine how my novel is situated within the context of the genre in Australia and account for how my original draft came to display Gothic elements. I also note the adjustments I made to enhance some of these elements in ‘Twigs from a Hedge in Winter’. The words that comprise the title of my novel were uttered in the Old Bailey in eighteenth-century London, when Jack Cooper was sentenced to transportation for life for stealing twigs from a hedge to keep warm in winter. The hedge was on the common land that Jack’s family had owned before Judge Christian Wilson enclosed it, leaving the Coopers to fend for themselves. My novel brings the descendants of the Wilsons and the Coopers together in present-day Australia. Camilla, mother of Lucas and Hugh, married Christian Wilson because she was pregnant as a result of her relationship with Jack Cooper. Camilla and Christian’s marriage was destructive. It became worse when Christian discovered that Lucas was not his son and Camilla found out that Christian had wanted her for her money and had tricked Jack into signing up for the military service that made him a casualty in World War Two. Camilla and Christian deliberately involved their children in their hostilities. Lucas learned to protect himself by dissociating, but Hugh perpetuated the Wilson past by behaving like his parents. When Camilla, elderly and demented, fell and broke a hip, Lucas and Hugh came together again in the old family home and their dysfunctional behaviours resurfaced. In the process, Lucas discovered why his mother, Camilla, had married Christian Wilson and that his real father was a descendant of the convict, Jack Cooper.