Cirrus@Austlit

'This thesis consists of an exegesis, ‘A Changed Man’, and a novel, ‘Losing Face’. Together they analyse the intersection of masculinities, shame and suburbia in Australia. The exegesis closely reads Christos Tsiolkas’ The Jesus Man (1999) and Peter Polites’ The Pillars (2019) to argue that it is the key characters’ experience of the intersection of masculinities, shame and suburbia that drives them to lose their morality and commit violent and reprehensible crimes. ‘A Changed Man’ discusses the academic research which informed the development of my work of fiction, ‘Losing Face’, and more broadly, attempts to offer research which can inform the reading of similar texts, to better understand the often violent outcomes of the characters’ experience of the intersection of masculinities, shame and suburbia. The introduction of the exegesis highlights key concepts that will be used as a framework for analysing the novels in the two chapters that follow. Chapter One addresses The Jesus Man (1999) and Chapter Two addresses The Pillars (2019). The conclusion proposes that The Stefano brothers in The Jesus Man and all key characters in The Pillars including Pano, Kane and Basil, exist and operate in various kinds of habitus (suburban, social, family, work) that crossover and bring with them a different set of pressures to conform. Negotiating this overlap of pressure, and dealing with the conflict of shame and consecrated manhood, is what drives the characters to act out destructively and violently. The key characters in the novels lack mobility and control which amplifies their visceral experience of the intersection of masculinities, shame and suburbia. To remedy this pressure they lose their morality, exploit others, and undertake violent and reprehensible actions. The creative component of the thesis, titled ‘Losing Face’, tells the story of a troubled young Lebanese-Australian man living in Western Sydney in 2019. Throughout the novel, I aim to engage with and recognise the complexities of masculine identity as part of contemporary and diverse Australian culture. Additionally, the novel attempts to introduce nuances of sexuality and ethnic identity that are not often depicted in texts with similar key characters and themes. At the centre of ‘Losing Face’ is the sexual assault of a young woman in a suburban car park. This event draws on how the key characters’ performance of masculinity leads to violent outcomes that subordinate, traumatise and injure women.' (Publication summary)

'There’s something stimulating about seeing into other people’s houses. We’ve all glanced through an open window or door as we pass by on our walks. Seen the old retriever slumped in the doorway, the clutter, the gaudy furniture, the bad renovations; it’s always just a quick glance. It’s no surprise but still uncanny that we live so close together, on top of each other, separated by thin walls and floors, and yet, what goes on in the interiors of our fellow suburbanites’ houses remains mostly a secret. Imagine you were a working-class mother who regularly cleaned these houses. What stories would you tell yourself about the inhabitants as you fluffed up their cushions and scrubbed at their skid marks?' (Introduction) 

'A stunning, thought-provoking novel about facing up to your family and your future, dealing with timely issues around sexual consent and inherited trauma. Joey is young, indifferent. He’s drifting around Western Sydney unaware of how his passivity might lead him even further adrift, off the rails, into a violent crime.

'Meanwhile his grandmother Elaine – a proud Lebanese woman – tries to hold her family and herself together in the wake of Joey’s actions. In her family, history repeats itself, vices come and go, and uncovering long-buried secrets isn’t always cathartic.

'This gripping and hard-hitting novel reveals the richness and complexity of contemporary Australian life and tests the idea that facing consequences will make us better people.' (Publication summary)

'This research takes as its basis the plurality of time and the plurality of queerness and attempts to locate a hybrid form through a case study approach to practice.'  (Publication abstract)

'There is a peculiar practice in immigrant Sydney that I know well thanks to being born to a pair of Lebanese settlers. It is when a set of beliefs that parents hold true about other ethnicities (usually groups of people who migrated earlier than they did) are told to their children as a kind of forewarning. For example, as my father drove along Burwood Road to drop me off at Christian Brothers College, he would point at the cluster of Asian shops and say, ‘In business, Chinese are the most cunning.’ This probably would have made a lot more sense to me had my father ever engaged in ‘business’ but he hadn’t which meant he had inherited that saying from some other Lebanese man in a TAB somewhere who had probably heard the same from another Lebanese man and I suppose it could probably be traced to some misadventure of business between two eager men from different parts of the world. When my father said these things, I would nod. As would my sisters and cousins and any other third culture kids splattered around Sydney when their elders spoke these varyingly racist beliefs. We would nod. Not because we agreed, but because very early on as Australian-born children, we knew we would never speak the same language as our parents, that we were somehow more accepting than them if not purely by default of grazing our knees on the diverse playgrounds of Sydney’s schools.' (Introduction)

'I drive the ATV south from the hotel to Jackie O’ Beach Club. Kosta is on the back with one arm around my waist and the other gripping his phone, filming for Instagram. I tell him to put his phone away a lot but this time I get it. I park suddenly.' (Introduction)

'The first question in the performance review asks: Describe the most rewarding task you have completed in your role in the past three months.

'I think: ‘Robbing dishwashing tablets from the cleaner’s cupboard for home.’ I write: ‘Finding a suitable foster carer for the Wilson siblings was very rewarding because I managed to keep them together …’' (Introduction)

'Populate and Perish is the story of Nick, a young man in Melbourne, and his sister Amira who travel to Lebanon after the death of their mother looking for their estranged father – neither is prepared for what they find.'

Source: Seizure (http://seizureonline.com/and-the-winners-are/). (Sighted: 03/03/2016)