The Influence of French Literature on Patrick White's 'The Living and the Dead'

Abstract

Patrick White, as craftsman and thinker, is the product of many differing cultural forces, -literary, psychological, familial and personal- of which several literary influences were traditional or European. As he has recalled recently, his studies in French and German "were (...) part of the blundering search for a means of self-expression and fulfilment" ('Flaws in the Glass', 35). To date, criticism of White has been cautious of delving into the continental models for his works, and most scholarly studies are peculiarly guarded in their reference to sources in French and German (l) classic fiction.