"What these Ithacas mean"

Abstract

In its introduction, this exegesis surveys ideas about creative writing and research, suggesting that the novel ‘Bound’ draws on considerable research for creative writing and is, itself, an example of practice-led research or research through creative writing. The main body of the exegesis is research into creative writing—an examination of the nostos motif that is at the heart of ‘Bound’ and that is central to sea fiction in general. Sea fiction is “an enduring, international form of modern fiction which spans from the beginning of the eighteenth century to our present” (Cohen 1). The genre is traditionally recognisable by three common elements: the sea, the sailor, and the ship (Bender 6). The nostos motif is an archetype of voyage narrative (Foulke 10). It functions as a structuring thought offering narrative and thematic possibilities (Alexopoulou vii), and its basic structure—a long and difficult voyage culminating in a return—recurs in Western sea fiction, providing an apt, powerful and intriguing metaphoric vehicle within which character transformation might occur. The body of the exegesis begins by offering a detailed framework of components comprising nostos, proposing that five common characteristics constitute the motif and four representative features underlie it. It proceeds to examine the operation of that framework in two recent sea fictions—Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Julian Barnes’ “The Survivor”. The final chapter discusses the ways in which ‘Bound’ adopts and adapts the characteristics and features of nostos for use in a contemporary world, explaining, among other things, the relevance and importance of the novel’s new models of heroism.