i will post mine as soon as it is finished. here's my foreword in the time being (it's really crap - my whole thing!):
Foreword
Lian Hearn is a pseudonym adopted by renowned children's author Gillian Rubinstein upon her first foray into adult literature. The intent of this critical response is to analyse two of Rubinstein’s adult fiction novels, Across the Nightingale Floor and Grass For His Pillow (published under the Hearn nom de plume), and two of her books for younger readers, Shinkei and The Whale’s Child.
The main focus of this analysis is the contextual connection with the author and the texts, and simultaneously the relationship between the texts and the audience, in particular reference to Louise Rosenblatt and her Reader-Response Theory. Rosenblatt defined in her Transactional Reader-Response Theory that for a transaction between the text and the reader to occur, the reader’s approach to the text must be “aesthetic rather than efferent.” When one reads in this aesthetic mode, they “experience a personal relationship to the text that focuses (their) attention on the emotional subtleties of its language and encourages (them) to make judgements.”
Thus, this analysis relies on the literary techniques that enable the aesthetic transaction to occur, whilst also examining the themes and parallels present which are a reflection of Rubinstein’s context and thoughts.
These analogous themes are unanimously present in the four texts. Namely, each of the books has the inclusion of Japan, being either based entirely or partially in Japan, which enabled Rubinstein to explore an area of her interest.
Relationships are vital throughout the novels, but more specifically family relationships are the focus of the story, with characters from each text being either orphaned, coming from a broken home, or who have a poor relationship with their parents. As a result of this, they are forced to become self-reliant, and it is through this independence that they discover another world or come to the realisation that there is more to the world than they knew.
The final theme that is broached is that of power and control, and the wielding of this power in the fight against an evil side. This side can also be something from which the characters are fleeing within themselves, an inherent malevolence and wickedness. The use of power in this sense is intoxicating to the characters, who need to learn their bounds in order to triumph over that which they seek to conquer.
