Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas

Abstract:

Lucy Strange, the protagonist of Gail Jones' Sixty Lights (2004), can be seen as an early example of a global citizen. Travelling between the periphery and the center of the British Empire, Lucy repeatedly makes sea-journeys that last for months—a kind of journey that no longer exists in today's world. Although this travelling helps shape her identity, it also makes her incapable of calling any one location her home. This article discusses the portrayal of Lucy as a modern 19th-century woman who is simultaneously a 21st century, neo-Victorian creation. It analyzes the links between femininity and voyages in the novel. Lucy's travels serve to depict the movement of women and mothers across the sea as an inherent part of globalization, writing them into what was often seen as a development led by male adventurers and businessmen. Jones presents Lucy as a young woman at the edge of modernity. Nevertheless, Lucy's lack of rootedness also questions whether travelling requires different—more modern—constructions of female identity.