Frame, Janet

From New World Encyclopedia
(import Janet Frame)
 
 
(17 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
−
'''Janet Paterson Frame'''  [[Order of New Zealand|ONZ]], [[Order of British Empire|CBE]], ([[August 28]], [[1924]] - [[January 29]], [[2004]]) was the [[New Zealand literature|New Zealand author]] of eleven novels, four collections of short stories, a book of poetry, a children's book, and a three volume autobiography.
+
{{epname|Frame, Janet}}{{images OK}}{{submitted}}{{approved}}{{Paid}}{{copyedited}}
  
−
==Life overview ==
+
'''Janet Paterson Frame'''  [[Order of New Zealand|ONZ]], [[Order of British Empire|CBE]], (August 28, 1924 - January 29, 2004), a [[New Zealand literature|New Zealand author]], wrote eleven novels, four collections of short stories, a book of poetry, a children's book, and a three-volume autobiography.
−
Born in [[Dunedin]], [[New Zealand]], she was one of five children of a railway worker. Frame was reared in [[Oamaru]] (which she later fictionalised as "Waimaru"), attending Oamaru North School and Waitaki Girls' High School. Two of her three sisters drowned in separate incidents at a young age and her only brother was an epileptic. Only he and his sister, June, of the five children, went on to marry others and have families.
+
{{toc}}
 +
Famous for both her prose and her life story—she escaped [[lobotomy]] as a falsely diagnosed mental patient only by receiving a literary prize just in time—she became a very private person in later life. This relates to her 1958 decision to change her name by [[deed poll]] to '''Nene Janet Paterson Clutha.''' [[Frank Sargeson]] praised her prose as possessing a "frightening clarity of perception," though her novels eschewed traditional New Zealand literary realism for a [[Magic realism|more magical style]].<ref>New Zealand Herald,  
 +
[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3546633 A literary angel mourned.] Retrieved November 15, 2007.</ref>
  
−
In 1943, Frame enrolled at [[Dunedin College of Education | Dunedin Teachers' College]], studying English, French and psychology at the adjacent [[University of Otago]].
+
== Life overview ==
  
−
In 1947, while doing student teaching in Dunedin, Frame experienced a moment of panic that led her to leave the classroom. College authorities soon contacted her parents and pressured them to sign papers committing Frame to [[Seacliff, New Zealand | Seacliff]] Mental Hospital where she was incorrectly diagnosed as suffering from [[schizophrenia]]. Thus began eight years on and off in various psychiatric hospitals, undergoing over 200 [[shock treatment]]s. In 1951, while a patient, she published her first book, a collection of short stories entitled ''The Lagoon and Other Stories'', which won the Hubert Church Memorial Award. That award led her doctors to cancel the [[leucotomy]] they were about to perform on her.
+
===Early life===
 +
Born in [[Dunedin]], [[New Zealand]], she was one of five children of a railway worker. Dr. [[Emily Hancock Siedeberg]], New Zealand's first female medical graduate, delivered her at St. Helens Hospital, Dunedin. Frame grew up in [[Oamaru]] (which she later fictionalized as "Waimaru"), and attended Oamaru North School and Waitaki Girls' High School. Two of her three sisters drowned in separate incidents at a young age, and her only brother suffered from [[epilepsy]]. Only he and his sister, June, of the five children, went on to marry and have families.  
  
−
From [[1954]] to [[1955]], the pioneering New Zealand author [[Frank Sargeson]] let Frame live at no charge in an outbuilding at his residence in the [[Auckland]] suburb of [[Takapuna]]. Sargeson encouraged her in good writing habits, but she never let him see her work. She wrote her first novel "Owls Do Cry" while staying at his place. In 1956, Frame left New Zealand with the help of a State Literary Fund grant. For seven years she lived in [[London]], with sojourns in [[Ibiza]] and [[Andorra]]. Not long after arriving in London, the American trained psychiatrist Alan Miller, who had trained at the [[Johns Hopkins University]] under the New Zealander [[John Money]], pronounced her sane. Money and Frame had become good friends when they met at Otago University and their friendship endured for the rest of their lives.
+
In 1943, Frame enrolled at [[Dunedin College of Education|Dunedin Teachers' College]], studying English, French, and [[psychology]] at the adjacent [[University of Otago]].
  
−
She returned to New Zealand in 1964, upon learning of her father's death. (Her autobiography ends at this point.) She served as the [[1965]] [[Burns Fellowship|Burns Fellow]] at the [[University of Otago]], and then lived in several different parts of New Zealand including Dunedin, Auckland, Taranaki, Wanganui and the [[Horowhenua]]. Between 1965 and 1974, she spent much time in the USA, including at the [[Yaddo]] literary colony.
+
In 1947, while doing student-teaching in Dunedin, Frame walked out of the classroom. She had no wish to return to teaching and instead wanted to devote her life to literature. She promised to supply the authorities with a medical certificate explaining her absence, but she had no certificate. College authorities soon contacted her parents and pressured them to sign papers committing Frame to Seacliff Mental Hospital, where the staff incorrectly diagnosed her as suffering from [[schizophrenia]]. Thus began eight years on and off in various psychiatric hospitals, undergoing over 200 [[shock treatment]]s. In 1951, while a patient, she published her first book, a collection of short stories entitled ''The Lagoon and Other Stories,'' which won the Hubert Church Memorial Award. These stories expressed her sense of isolation and alienation from the "normal" world. That award led her doctors to cancel the [[leucotomy]] they had scheduled to perform on her.  
  
−
Her autobiographical trilogy ''To the Is-land'', ''An Angel at my Table'', and ''The Envoy from Mirror City'' was adapted by [[Jane Campion]] into the 1990 [[film]] ''An Angel at my Table'', in which [[Kerry Fox]] and two other actresses of different ages played the role of Frame. This autobiography contains an important account of an extended stay in a mental hospital, just before such hospitals were largely closed down in the 1960s.
+
From 1954 to 1955, the pioneering New Zealand author [[Frank Sargeson]] let Frame live at no charge in an outbuilding at his residence in the [[Auckland]] suburb of [[Takapuna]]. Sargeson encouraged her in good writing habits, but she never let him see her work. She wrote her first novel ''Owls Do Cry'' while staying at his place. Again she returned to the theme of sanity and madness. Stylistically, the novel incorporated both [[poetry]] and prose in an experimental fashion.  
  
−
Janet Frame was a private person, spending the later part of her life out of the public limelight under her officially registered name of "Janet Clutha".
+
In 1956, Frame left New Zealand with the help of a State Literary Fund grant. For seven years, she lived in [[London]], with sojourns in [[Ibiza]] and [[Andorra]]. Not long after arriving in London, the American-trained psychiatrist Alan Miller, who had studied at [[Johns Hopkins University]] under the New Zealander [[John Money]], pronounced her sane. Money and Frame had become good friends when they met at Otago University and their friendship endured for the rest of their lives.
  
−
In 1983, Frame became a Commander of the [[Order of British Empire]] (CBE) for services to literature. She won the 1989 [[Commonwealth Writers Prize]] for her book ''The Carpathians''. In 1990, she was admitted to the [[Order of New Zealand]].  
+
She returned to New Zealand in 1963, upon learning of her father's death. (Her autobiography ends at this point.) She held the 1965 [[Burns Fellowship]] at the [[University of Otago]], and then lived in several different parts of New Zealand, including Dunedin, Auckland, Taranaki, Wanganui, and the [[Horowhenua]]. Between 1965 and 1974, she spent much time in the U.S., including some at the [[Yaddo]] literary colony.
  
−
Frame was believed to be in the running for the [[Nobel Prize in literature]], especially when Asa Bechman, chief literary [[critic]] at the Swedish daily ''[[Dagens Nyheter]]'', predicted in 2003 that she would win it.
+
===Later life===
 +
Janet Frame lived as a private person, spending the later part of her life, as much as possible, out of the public limelight, under her officially registered name of "Janet Clutha." She traveled frequently to visit friends who lived in the U.S. and the UK, and made occasional appearances at literary festivals held in New York, Toronto, Hawaii, Melbourne, Christchurch, and Wellington.
  
−
Janet Frame died at Dunedin hospital, aged 79, from acute myeloid leukaemia, shortly after winning the New Zealand Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement.
+
In 1983, Frame became a Commander of the [[Order of British Empire]] (CBE) for services to literature. She won the 1989 [[Commonwealth Writers Prize]] for her book, ''The Carpathians''. In 1990, the Queen admitted her to the [[Order of New Zealand]]. Frame became an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and received honorary doctorates from two New Zealand Universities.
  
−
==Literary works ==
+
Many people regarded Frame as in the running for the [[Nobel Prize in literature]], especially when Asa Bechman, chief literary [[critic]] at the Swedish daily ''[[Dagens Nyheter]],'' predicted in 2003 that she would win it.
−
*See: [http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/nzp/nzlit2/frame.htm Auckand University List of Frame's Publications]
 
  
−
===Novels===  
+
Janet Frame died at Dunedin hospital, aged 79, from acute [[myeloid leukemia]], shortly after winning the New Zealand Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement.
 +
 
 +
== Literary works ==
 +
===''The Carpathians''===
 +
{{infobox Book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] —>
 +
| name          = The Carpathians
 +
| title_orig    =
 +
| translator    =
 +
| image        =
 +
| image_caption =
 +
| author        = [[Janet Frame]]
 +
| illustrator  =
 +
| cover_artist  =
 +
| country      = [[New Zealand]]
 +
| language      =
 +
| series        =
 +
| genre        =
 +
| publisher    =
 +
| release_date  = 1989
 +
| english_release_date =
 +
| media_type    =
 +
| pages        =
 +
| isbn          =
 +
| preceded_by  =
 +
| followed_by  =
 +
}}
 +
''The Carpathians'' is a novel by Janet Frame published in 1989, which won that year's  [[Commonwealth Writers Prize]]. It is an example of her use of the style of [[Magic Realism]]. In ''The Carpathians,'' readers are presented with a topsy-turvy world. The protagonist, Mattina Brecon from New York, decides to fly to New Zealand to visit a town called Puamahara, where a Memory Flower grows. The flower has a special power that releases memories of the land, linking them with the future. Once there, Mattina rents a house on Kowhai Street, where she sets out to take control over her neighbors. They, however, are also time "impostors," brought into existence by the memory of another time and place. The town slowly begins to resemble a cemetery: Silent and dead still, with the exception of the abundance of exotic flowers. Mattina begins to unravel the secrets of Kowhai Street and discovers, in her own bedroom, that there is a strong presence.
 +
 
 +
===Novels ===  
 
Dates given record the date of first publication:
 
Dates given record the date of first publication:
 
*1957. ''Owls Do Cry''. Christchurch NZ: Pegasus Press.
 
*1957. ''Owls Do Cry''. Christchurch NZ: Pegasus Press.
Line 33: Line 64:
 
*1963. ''The Adaptable Man''. Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1963.
 
*1963. ''The Adaptable Man''. Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1963.
 
*1966. ''A State of Siege''. New York: Brazillier.
 
*1966. ''A State of Siege''. New York: Brazillier.
−
*1963. ''The Rainbirds''. WH Allen, London, 1968. Published in the USA in 1969 as ''Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room''.
+
*1963. ''The Rainbirds''. WH Allen, London, 1968. Published in the U.S. in 1969 as ''Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room''.
 
*1970. ''Intensive Care''. Brazillier.
 
*1970. ''Intensive Care''. Brazillier.
 
*1972. ''Daughter Buffalo''. Brazillier.
 
*1972. ''Daughter Buffalo''. Brazillier.
Line 39: Line 70:
 
*1989. ''[[The Carpathians]]''. Brazillier.
 
*1989. ''[[The Carpathians]]''. Brazillier.
  
−
===Stories===
+
=== Stories===
−
* "University Entrance" in ''New Zealand Listener'', [[22 March]] [[1946]].
+
* "University Entrance" in ''New Zealand Listener'', 22 March 1946.
 
* "Alison Hendry" in ''Landfall'' 2, June 1947. (reprinted in ''The Lagoon and Other Stories'' as "Jan Godfrey".)  
 
* "Alison Hendry" in ''Landfall'' 2, June 1947. (reprinted in ''The Lagoon and Other Stories'' as "Jan Godfrey".)  
−
*1951 (1952). ''The Lagoon and Other Stories''. Christchurch: Caxton Press.
+
* 1951 (1952). ''The Lagoon and Other Stories''. Christchurch: Caxton Press.
−
*1963. ''The Reservoir: Stories and Sketches''. New York: Brazillier.
+
* 1963. ''The Reservoir: Stories and Sketches''. New York: Brazillier.
−
*1963. ''Snowman Snowman: Fables and Fantasies''. New York: Brazillier.
+
* 1963. ''Snowman Snowman: Fables and Fantasies''. New York: Brazillier.
−
*1966. ''The Reservoir and Other Stories''. Christchurch: Pegasus Press.
+
* 1966. ''The Reservoir and Other Stories''. Christchurch: Pegasus Press.
−
*1983. ''You Are Now Entering the Human Heart''. Wellington: Victoria University Press.
+
* 1983. ''You Are Now Entering the Human Heart''. Wellington: Victoria University Press.
  
−
====Children's Stories====
+
====Children's stories ====
−
*1969. ''Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun''. New York: Brazillier.
+
* 1969. ''Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun''. New York: Brazillier.
−
*2005. ''Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun'', new edition. Auckland: Random House/Vintage.
+
* 2005. ''Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun,'' new edition. Auckland: Random House/Vintage.
  
−
===Poetry===
+
=== Poetry===
−
*1967. ''The Pocket Mirror''. New York: Brazillier.
+
* 1967. ''The Pocket Mirror''. New York: Brazillier.
−
* "Three Poems by Janet Frame" in ''New Zealand Listener'', [[28 August]]-[[3 September]] [[2004]] Vol 195 No 3355. [http://www.listener.co.nz/default,2490.sm view online]
+
* "Three Poems by Janet Frame" in ''New Zealand Listener'', 28 August-3 September 2004  Vol 195 No 3355.  
−
* ''The Goose Bath: Poems,'' Random House/Vintage, Auckland, 2006. (This new volume of poetry appeared posthumously in March 2006, published with the guidance of Frame's niece Pamela Gordon, Denis Harold, Wellington writer [[Bill Manhire]] and the [http://janetframe.org.nz Janet Frame Literary Trust] in accordance with Janet Frame's wishes.)
+
* ''The Goose Bath'' Random House/Vintage, Auckland, 2006.
  
−
===Autobiography===
+
===Autobiography ===
 
* ''To the Is-Land (Autobiography 1),'' Brazillier, New York, 1982.
 
* ''To the Is-Land (Autobiography 1),'' Brazillier, New York, 1982.
 
* ''An Angel at My Table (Autobiography 2),'' Hutchinson, Auckland, 1984.
 
* ''An Angel at My Table (Autobiography 2),'' Hutchinson, Auckland, 1984.
Line 67: Line 98:
 
* "Review of Terence Journet's ''Take My Tip''" in ''Landfall'' 32, December 1954, pp. 309-310.
 
* "Review of Terence Journet's ''Take My Tip''" in ''Landfall'' 32, December 1954, pp. 309-310.
 
* "Review of ''A Fable'' by William Faulkner" in ''Parson's Packet'', no. 36, October-December 1955, pp. 12-13.
 
* "Review of ''A Fable'' by William Faulkner" in ''Parson's Packet'', no. 36, October-December 1955, pp. 12-13.
−
* "Memory and a Pocketful of Words" in ''Times Literary Supplement'', [[4 June]] [[1964]], pp. 12-13.
+
* "Memory and a Pocketful of Words" in ''Times Literary Supplement'', 4 June 1964, pp. 12-13.
−
* "This Desirable Property" in ''New Zealand Listener'', [[3 July]] [[1964]], pp. 12-13.
+
* "This Desirable Property" in ''New Zealand Listener'', 3 July 1964, pp. 12-13.
 
* "Beginnings" in ''Landfall'' 73, March 1965, pp. 40-47.
 
* "Beginnings" in ''Landfall'' 73, March 1965, pp. 40-47.
 
* "The Burns Fellowship" in ''Landfall'' 87, September 1968, pp. 241-242.
 
* "The Burns Fellowship" in ''Landfall'' 87, September 1968, pp. 241-242.
Line 76: Line 107:
 
* "A last Letter to Frank Sargeson" in ''Islands'' 33, July 1984, pp. 17-22.
 
* "A last Letter to Frank Sargeson" in ''Islands'' 33, July 1984, pp. 17-22.
  
−
==Trivia==
+
==Legacy==
−
{{trivia|date=May 2007}}
+
Frame was an influential figure within the genre of [[Magic Realism]], but it is as a modern example of the "tortured artist" that she will inevitably be remembered, as well as for the film made from her biographical trilogy. [[Jane Campion]] adapted Frame's autobiographical trilogy (''To the Is-land,'' ''An Angel at my Table,'' and ''The Envoy from Mirror City'') into the 1990 [[film]] ''An Angel at my Table,'' in which [[Kerry Fox]] and two other actresses of different ages played the role of Frame. This autobiography contains an important account of an extended stay in a mental hospital in the days just before such hospitals generally closed in the 1960s.
  
−
* The original 1951 edition of ''The Lagoon and Other Stories'', and a number of subsequent editions printed using movable type, contain a completely mistaken, out of place line in the third-to-last paragraph of Frame's story "Dossy".
+
==Notes ==
−
* Frame originally entitled her first novel ''Talk of Treasure'' but Albion Wright at Pegasus Press didn't like that title, and suggested the change to ''Owls Do Cry'' from the frontispiece quotation for the book (a quote from ''[[The Tempest]]''). 
+
<references/>
−
* Frame wore a striking blue-and-gold (Otago colours) scarf to the 2001 exhibition of her work in the Hocken Collections. When the bold scarf was admired, she joked that she had bought it the night before at a supermarket because she felt she should have something new to wear at the Opening.
 
−
* Dr. [[Emily Hancock Siedeberg]], New Zealand's first female medical graduate, delivered Janet Frame at St. Helens Hospital, Dunedin.
 
−
 
 
−
== See also ==
 
−
 
 
−
* [[New Zealand literature]]
 
−
* [[Michael King]] - Biographer
 
−
* [[Frank Sargeson]] - Mentor
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
−
 
+
* Delbaere, Jeanne, ed. ''The Ring of Fire. Essays on Janet Frame.'' Dangaroo Press (Aarhus), 1993. ISBN 9781875523085
−
* ''University of Otago Magazine'', February 2005.
+
* King, Michael. ''Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame.'' Picador, 2002. ISBN 9780330352772
−
* King, Michael ''Wrestling with the Angel: A Life of Janet Frame'', Penguin Books (NZ), 2000.  
+
* King, Michael. ''An Inward Sun: The World of Janet Frame.'' Associates Press, 1994. ISBN 9780908896172
−
* King, Michael ''An Inward Sun: The World of Janet Frame'', Penguin Books (NZ), 2002.
+
* New Zealand Herald. [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3546285 Legendary NZ writer Janet Frame dies.] Retrieved November 16, 2007.
−
*'Legendary NZ writer Janet Frame dies'. New Zealand Herald. 29 January 2004. [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3546285]
+
* ''University of Otago Magazine.'' February 2005.
−
* Delbaere, Jeanne,ed. ''The Ring of Fire. Essays on Janet Frame'', Dangaroo Press (Aarhus),1992.
 
  
 
==External links==  
 
==External links==  
 +
All links retrieved March 21, 2018.
 +
* [http://janetframe.org.nz Web Site of Janet Frame Literary Trust (Janet Frame's Estate)]
 +
* [http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/framej.html NZ Book Council Profile]
 +
* [http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/sounds/soundnz.asp#F Aotearoa New Zealand Sound Archive (scroll down to hear a reading of unpublished poem "Friends Far Away Die"]
  
−
<!-- of course, THIS article topped Robin's search engine offering —>
+
[[category:Writers and poets]]
−
* [http://janetframe.org.nz Web Site of Janet Frame Literary Trust (Janet Frame's Estate)]
+
[[category:Image wanted]]
−
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/30/db3001.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/01/30/ixportal.html Daily Telegraph obituary]
+
[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
−
* [http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/framej.html NZ Book Council Profile]
+
{{credits|Janet_Frame|146247686|The_Carpathians|147627851}}
−
* [http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/sounds/soundnz.asp#F Aotearoa New Zealand Sound Archive (scroll down to hear a reading of unpublished poem "Friends Far Away Die"]
 
−
* [http://www.ninoxdvd.com/#dvd01 "Wrestling With The Angel", a documentary]
 
−
*[http://www.davidelliot.org/gallery_results.php?book=11&submit_book=Go&txt= Mona Minim illustrations by David Elliot]
 
−
*[http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/nzp/nzlit2/frame.htm Auckland University List of Janet Frame's Publications]
 
−
 
 
−
{{Persondata
 
−
|NAME=Frame, Janet Paterson
 
−
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
 
−
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Author
 
−
|DATE OF BIRTH=[[August 28]], [[1924]]
 
−
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Dunedin]], [[New Zealand]]
 
−
|DATE OF DEATH=[[January 30]], [[2004]]
 
−
|PLACE OF DEATH=Dunedin, New Zealand
 
−
}}
 
−
 
 
−
[[category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
 
−
{{credits|Janet_Frame|137033153}}
 

Latest revision as of 14:47, 21 March 2018

Janet Paterson Frame ONZ, CBE, (August 28, 1924 - January 29, 2004), a New Zealand author, wrote eleven novels, four collections of short stories, a book of poetry, a children's book, and a three-volume autobiography.

Famous for both her prose and her life story—she escaped lobotomy as a falsely diagnosed mental patient only by receiving a literary prize just in time—she became a very private person in later life. This relates to her 1958 decision to change her name by deed poll to Nene Janet Paterson Clutha. Frank Sargeson praised her prose as possessing a "frightening clarity of perception," though her novels eschewed traditional New Zealand literary realism for a more magical style.[1]

Life overview

Early life

Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, she was one of five children of a railway worker. Dr. Emily Hancock Siedeberg, New Zealand's first female medical graduate, delivered her at St. Helens Hospital, Dunedin. Frame grew up in Oamaru (which she later fictionalized as "Waimaru"), and attended Oamaru North School and Waitaki Girls' High School. Two of her three sisters drowned in separate incidents at a young age, and her only brother suffered from epilepsy. Only he and his sister, June, of the five children, went on to marry and have families.

In 1943, Frame enrolled at Dunedin Teachers' College, studying English, French, and psychology at the adjacent University of Otago.

In 1947, while doing student-teaching in Dunedin, Frame walked out of the classroom. She had no wish to return to teaching and instead wanted to devote her life to literature. She promised to supply the authorities with a medical certificate explaining her absence, but she had no certificate. College authorities soon contacted her parents and pressured them to sign papers committing Frame to Seacliff Mental Hospital, where the staff incorrectly diagnosed her as suffering from schizophrenia. Thus began eight years on and off in various psychiatric hospitals, undergoing over 200 shock treatments. In 1951, while a patient, she published her first book, a collection of short stories entitled The Lagoon and Other Stories, which won the Hubert Church Memorial Award. These stories expressed her sense of isolation and alienation from the "normal" world. That award led her doctors to cancel the leucotomy they had scheduled to perform on her.

From 1954 to 1955, the pioneering New Zealand author Frank Sargeson let Frame live at no charge in an outbuilding at his residence in the Auckland suburb of Takapuna. Sargeson encouraged her in good writing habits, but she never let him see her work. She wrote her first novel Owls Do Cry while staying at his place. Again she returned to the theme of sanity and madness. Stylistically, the novel incorporated both poetry and prose in an experimental fashion.

In 1956, Frame left New Zealand with the help of a State Literary Fund grant. For seven years, she lived in London, with sojourns in Ibiza and Andorra. Not long after arriving in London, the American-trained psychiatrist Alan Miller, who had studied at Johns Hopkins University under the New Zealander John Money, pronounced her sane. Money and Frame had become good friends when they met at Otago University and their friendship endured for the rest of their lives.

She returned to New Zealand in 1963, upon learning of her father's death. (Her autobiography ends at this point.) She held the 1965 Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago, and then lived in several different parts of New Zealand, including Dunedin, Auckland, Taranaki, Wanganui, and the Horowhenua. Between 1965 and 1974, she spent much time in the U.S., including some at the Yaddo literary colony.

Later life

Janet Frame lived as a private person, spending the later part of her life, as much as possible, out of the public limelight, under her officially registered name of "Janet Clutha." She traveled frequently to visit friends who lived in the U.S. and the UK, and made occasional appearances at literary festivals held in New York, Toronto, Hawaii, Melbourne, Christchurch, and Wellington.

In 1983, Frame became a Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE) for services to literature. She won the 1989 Commonwealth Writers Prize for her book, The Carpathians. In 1990, the Queen admitted her to the Order of New Zealand. Frame became an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and received honorary doctorates from two New Zealand Universities.

Many people regarded Frame as in the running for the Nobel Prize in literature, especially when Asa Bechman, chief literary critic at the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, predicted in 2003 that she would win it.

Janet Frame died at Dunedin hospital, aged 79, from acute myeloid leukemia, shortly after winning the New Zealand Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement.

Literary works

The Carpathians

The Carpathians
Author Janet Frame
Country New Zealand
Publisher
Released 1989

The Carpathians is a novel by Janet Frame published in 1989, which won that year's Commonwealth Writers Prize. It is an example of her use of the style of Magic Realism. In The Carpathians, readers are presented with a topsy-turvy world. The protagonist, Mattina Brecon from New York, decides to fly to New Zealand to visit a town called Puamahara, where a Memory Flower grows. The flower has a special power that releases memories of the land, linking them with the future. Once there, Mattina rents a house on Kowhai Street, where she sets out to take control over her neighbors. They, however, are also time "impostors," brought into existence by the memory of another time and place. The town slowly begins to resemble a cemetery: Silent and dead still, with the exception of the abundance of exotic flowers. Mattina begins to unravel the secrets of Kowhai Street and discovers, in her own bedroom, that there is a strong presence.

Novels

Dates given record the date of first publication:

  • 1957. Owls Do Cry. Christchurch NZ: Pegasus Press.
  • 1961. Faces in the Water. Pegasus Press.
  • 1962. The Edge of the Alphabet. Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1962.
  • 1963. Scented Gardens for the Blind. Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1963.
  • 1963. The Adaptable Man. Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1963.
  • 1966. A State of Siege. New York: Brazillier.
  • 1963. The Rainbirds. WH Allen, London, 1968. Published in the U.S. in 1969 as Yellow Flowers in the Antipodean Room.
  • 1970. Intensive Care. Brazillier.
  • 1972. Daughter Buffalo. Brazillier.
  • 1979. Living in the Maniototo. Brazillier.
  • 1989. The Carpathians. Brazillier.

Stories

  • "University Entrance" in New Zealand Listener, 22 March 1946.
  • "Alison Hendry" in Landfall 2, June 1947. (reprinted in The Lagoon and Other Stories as "Jan Godfrey".)
  • 1951 (1952). The Lagoon and Other Stories. Christchurch: Caxton Press.
  • 1963. The Reservoir: Stories and Sketches. New York: Brazillier.
  • 1963. Snowman Snowman: Fables and Fantasies. New York: Brazillier.
  • 1966. The Reservoir and Other Stories. Christchurch: Pegasus Press.
  • 1983. You Are Now Entering the Human Heart. Wellington: Victoria University Press.

Children's stories

  • 1969. Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun. New York: Brazillier.
  • 2005. Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun, new edition. Auckland: Random House/Vintage.

Poetry

  • 1967. The Pocket Mirror. New York: Brazillier.
  • "Three Poems by Janet Frame" in New Zealand Listener, 28 August-3 September 2004 Vol 195 No 3355.
  • The Goose Bath Random House/Vintage, Auckland, 2006.

Autobiography

  • To the Is-Land (Autobiography 1), Brazillier, New York, 1982.
  • An Angel at My Table (Autobiography 2), Hutchinson, Auckland, 1984.
  • The Envoy From Mirror City (Autobiography 3), Hutchinson, Auckland, 1985.
  • Janet Frame: An Autobiography (Autobiography 1-3), Century Hutchinson, Auckland, 1989.

Articles

  • "A Letter to Frank Sargeson" in Landfall 25, March 1953, p.5.
  • "Review of Terence Journet's Take My Tip" in Landfall 32, December 1954, pp. 309-310.
  • "Review of A Fable by William Faulkner" in Parson's Packet, no. 36, October-December 1955, pp. 12-13.
  • "Memory and a Pocketful of Words" in Times Literary Supplement, 4 June 1964, pp. 12-13.
  • "This Desirable Property" in New Zealand Listener, 3 July 1964, pp. 12-13.
  • "Beginnings" in Landfall 73, March 1965, pp. 40-47.
  • "The Burns Fellowship" in Landfall 87, September 1968, pp. 241-242.
  • "Charles Brasch 1909-1973: Tributes and Memories from His Friends" in Islands 5, Spring 1973, pp. 251-253.
  • "Janet Frame on Tales from Grimm" in Education, Early Reading Series, 24, 9, 1975, p. 27.
  • "Departures and Returns" in G. Amirthanayagan (ed.) Writers in East-West Encounter, Macmillan, London, 1982.
  • "A last Letter to Frank Sargeson" in Islands 33, July 1984, pp. 17-22.

Legacy

Frame was an influential figure within the genre of Magic Realism, but it is as a modern example of the "tortured artist" that she will inevitably be remembered, as well as for the film made from her biographical trilogy. Jane Campion adapted Frame's autobiographical trilogy (To the Is-land, An Angel at my Table, and The Envoy from Mirror City) into the 1990 film An Angel at my Table, in which Kerry Fox and two other actresses of different ages played the role of Frame. This autobiography contains an important account of an extended stay in a mental hospital in the days just before such hospitals generally closed in the 1960s.

Notes

  1. ↑ New Zealand Herald, A literary angel mourned. Retrieved November 15, 2007.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

External links

All links retrieved March 21, 2018.

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Janet_Frame&oldid=1009959

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Copyright Logo
Powered by MediaWiki