Date of Award
2014
Document Type
Thesis - ECU Access Only
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts Honours
School
School of Communications and Arts
Faculty
Faculty of Education and Arts
First Supervisor
Marcella Polain
Abstract
This creative Honours project is centred on a female protagonist and explores the transition from girlhood to womanhood in an unconventional home setting in modern rural Australia. It investigates the developmental effects of personal and cultural rites of passage, exploring themes such as time, nature, memory and fear. Using Erik Erikson’s framework of adolescent psychological development, particularly his theory of ‘adolescent crisis’, this work addresses the transitions, conflicts and growth, both inner and outer, mental and emotional, that the growing protagonist must navigate in order to achieve maturity and function past her girlhood into womanhood. The genre of magic realism is used to draw the reader into the protagonist’s slowly forming sense of self and worldview as she undergoes both culturally and personally constructed rites of passage in her coming-of-age process.
Recommended Citation
Halbert, J. R. (2014). Cordy and the house with a view. Edith Cowan University. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons/125