Bio
Janet Frame was born in Dunedin New Zealand
in 1924 into a working class family. She was raised with a love of words, of
literature and of nature, and her writing talent was recognised at an early
age. However writing, especially for a woman, was not regarded as a 'real
job'.
Janet is the second from the left
"They think I'm going to be a
schoolteacher but I'm going to be a poet"
(Autobiography
Volume 1)
The fate befalling the young woman who wanted "to be
a poet" has been well documented. Desperately unhappy because of family
tragedies and finding herself trapped in the wrong vocation (as a
schoolteacher) her only escape appeared to be in submission to society's
judgement of her as abnormal. She spent four and a half years out of eight
years, incarcerated in mental hospitals. The story of her almost miraculous
survival of the horrors and brutalising treatment in unenlightened
institutions has become well known. She continued to write throughout her
troubled years, and her first book (The
Lagoon and Other Stories) won a prestigious literary prize, thus
convincing her doctors not to carry out a planned lobotomy.
She returned to society, but not the one which had
labelled her a misfit. She sought the support and company of fellow writers
and set out single-mindedly and courageously to achieve her goal of being a
writer. She wrote her first novel (Owls
Do Cry) while staying with her mentor Frank Sargeson, and then left New
Zealand, not to return for seven years.
 
Left: In London in
the 1950s. Right: Nearly 40 years
later with the actors who played her (Photo Bridget Ikin)
When
[Owls Do Cry] was published, I was
alarmed to find that it was believed to be autobiographical, with the
characters actual members of my family, and myself the character Daphne upon
whom a brain operation was performed... Daphne resembled me in many ways
except in her frailty and absorption in fantasy to the exclusion of
'reality'; I have always been strong and practical, even commonplace in my
everyday life
(Autobiography Volume 2)
She lived first in Spain
and later in England
where eventually she was assessed by specialists and liberated from the
misguided diagnosis of schizophrenia. Acting on advice from her doctor
("as I was obviously suffering from the effects of my long stay in
hospital in New Zealand"), she produced the novel Faces in The Water: an exquisitely written fictional
transformation of some of the torments she had experienced and the
misfortunes she had witnessed during her stays in psychiatric wards.
From this point on Janet Frame had the confidence to
resist a portrayal of herself as 'crazy' simply because she wanted to live a
mainly solitary life, avoiding marriage and family and a 'real' job, so that
she could preserve her 'own world' - her writing. She changed her surname to
'Clutha' (after a New Zealand
river) and was issued with a new passport. She continued to write under the
surname Frame and attempted to live as anonymously as possible under the
pseudonym.
There had never been any question of my
not being able to exist in the 'real world' unless that existence also
deprived me of my 'own world'
(Autobiography
Volume 3)
She worked prolifically and later returned to New
Zealand as an established author
internationally acclaimed for her unique literary style in which she pushed
the boundaries of the traditions she drew from and grew out of. She based
herself in her home country for the rest of her life, although she travelled
frequently to the United States
and England.
In her lifetime she published eleven novels, five collections
of stories, a volume of poetry and a children's book. As her fame grew and
readers became curious to know more about the private life behind the famous
"local girl made good", her reluctance to make more than a few rare
public appearances led to a perception of her as a recluse who was unable,
rather than unwilling, to jump through the publicity hoops generally expected
at the release of each new volume. Her absence from the lecterns and radio
waves of the nation allowed conjecture and rumour to proliferate.
Exasperation at some of the 'myths' she heard about herself, led her to
attempt to "set the record straight" in the celebrated
autobiographical trilogy she wrote as she approached the age of sixty. The
success of the autobiography led to even more fame, and when Jane Campion
released her film adaptation, (An Angel at my Table), Janet Frame's story
became a worldwide source of inspiration far beyond her usual international
literary audience. In her home country she was already affectionately regarded
as a cultural 'icon'.
Throughout her long career she received many honours at
home and abroad. She was made a CBE in 1983 for services to literature,
awarded an honorary doctorate of literature from Otago
University in 1978, and one from Waikato
University in 1992. She received New
Zealand's highest civil honour in 1990
when she was made a Member of the Order of New
Zealand. Janet Frame died in Dunedin
in 2004.
Obituaries
NZ Herald
NZ Listener
Sydney Morning Herald
The Melbourne Age
The Guardian
New
York Times (Requires registration)
January 30, 2004,
Friday
By DOUGLAS MARTIN (NYT); The Arts/Cultural Desk
Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 23, Column 5, 717 words
J A N E T F R A
M E
(Written
by Michael Moynahan, Managing Director, Random House NZ)
February 2004
The New Zealand literary landscape will never be quite the same again. Even
though there hadn't been a new book from Janet for some years, her presence
and influence permeated so much of the context in which New Zealand fiction
found its voice.At a time when New Zealanders were tentatively and
self-consciously beginning the process of writing our stories, Janet was
among the vanguard.The thing that made this all the more remarkable was of
course the personal journey that Janet had undertaken to get there. While
most of us have lives of comfort and predictability, Janet pushed all the
boundaries. Random House New Zealand was incredibly proud to be associated
with her books. As her local publisher we never aimed to influence, or in any
way direct, the process of her writing, but rather we were always grateful to
get any news of progress or have any involvement with it. When she lived in
Auckland briefly we had more
contact with her than we had at other times, and
by a strange twist of coincidence our receptionist at the time lived next
door to her. My most surreal moment, however, would have been when Salman
Rushdie visited New Zealand
in 1996 and asked if he could meet with her. It
was a moment in publishing where I felt the need to pinch myself as there are
few jobs that would allow me to be in the same room with two such fierce
intellects who wanted to discuss their personal experiences of being an
author.
Janet was very unpredictable in terms of her public profile. She was
intensely private but you could never tell when all of a sudden she was happy
to be seen. Although she guarded her privacy, she was also incredibly
generous with her advice and support, particularly for other writers.There
was always going to be a moment when Janet Frame would leave us, and no
matter how much it's possible to prepare mentally for that moment, it still
comes as a shock. In this case, however, the reality is that she will achieve
immortality because generations of New Zealanders to come will marvel at the
inspiration that led a very quiet, rather small, unassuming New
Zealand woman
to scale such heights and produce such a lasting legacy.
Sourced from: The Publisher
February 2002 http://www.bpanz.org.nz
Reproduced
by kind permission.
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Last revised: 7 October 2008
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Challenging the Myths
This
column has been provided as an educational resource in answer to frequently
asked questions by NZ students.
"From the first place of liquid darkness,
within the second place of air and light, I set down the following record
with its mixture of fact and truths and memories of truths and its direction
toward the Third Place, where the starting point is myth"
Janet Frame is probably the most famous writer ever
to have been produced by New Zealand.
Within New Zealand,
many myths persist about her, so much so that the myth-making itself has
become an interesting topic for investigation.
A scholarly monograph
has recently been published that touches on Janet Frame's "biographical
legend" and offers some interesting insights (Maria Wikse 2006).
Myth #1: The Mad Writer
Some say that this myth
has long been discredited. It's true that any academic who tried to argue for
this should expect to attract scorn, but the myth still crops up in the wider
community.
Comment:
"It is a measure of the awful fascination that
attends mental illness in New Zealand that the question of her 'madness'
still arises in discussion of her work and that Frame herself should still be
at pains to separate herself personally from the dread word 'schizophrenia'
which was used to imprison and punish her for the crime of not desiring what
society deemed valuable". Mark Williams, Leaving the Highway AUP, 1990).
Myth #2: The Mad Fat Writer
. "Until Jane Campion's film I was
known as the mad writer. Now I'm the mad fat
writer"
(Janet Frame)
A consequence of the
filmic Janet being played by well-built actors, was that Janet Frame herself (who
was never overweight until her old age) became stereotyped in the popular
imagination as the "fat girl in a cardie" character portrayed on
screen. This mistake, although trivial, should act as a caution against
assuming that any other aspect of the film Janet can be taken as a reliable
guide to any characteristic of the real Janet.
Myth #3: The Recluse
Visiting French author Nadine
Ribault, who has translated some of Frame's short stories, was mystified
when, on a visit to New Zealand,
she encountered the popular belief that Janet Frame "keeps to
herself" and "no one meets her". One of the clues Ribault had
picked up from Frame's writing was that someone with her "wonderful
sense of humour" would be incapable of a total withdrawal from society.
(Quotes are from
Ribault's essay in Colour of Distance VUP
2005).
"While
her humility was renowned, she was a most engaging personality with a
wickedly funny sense of humour and a generosity of spirit"
(New Zealand Prime
Minister Helen Clark)
Myth #4: Autism?
In a startling elaboration on the myth of
Janet Frame as an anti-social recluse, a new theory has emerged that she may have
had "high functioning autism". Such a hypothesis can only be taken seriously by those
who are largely ignorant of Frame's life and work. The idea seems to have
originated from the mistaken idea that the fictionalised movie adaptation of
Janet Frame's life had any resemblance to the real Janet Frame. Those who
knew Janet Frame in person, or even have more than a passing acquaintance
with her life and work, dismiss the theory as nonsense.
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