AustLit

'Through the lens of Australian author Nicole Watson’s The Boundary this paper will consider the representation of the crime novel, both traditional detection (Christie, Doyle) and the modernist tradition, and how that illuminates social realities. Drawing from critical race theory, and examining the embedded logic of settler colonialism, the paper connects the form of the novel to Watson’s social and legal critique, questioning of the liminality of the legal/illegal, ethical/unethical, and its framing. At stake in the novel is the preservation of an ethnic identity, an uncorrupted natural landscape, and faith in both a political and law enforcement system in which corruption and personal entanglements seem to play as great a role as ethics and integrity. At stake in the paper is how the novel can intervene in social and political debates on Aboriginal, racial, and ethical terms, preserving both personal identity and its contingent effects in protecting the land.'  (Introduction)

'This paper explores how George Turner's The Sea and Summer utilizes nostalgic narrative to develop an affective attachment to the climate disaster and instigates, in its narrative, meaningful change. Through a consideration of Svetlana Boym's reflective nostalgia, the affective response the novel activates, and the affect created by Gothic tropes, I suggest that this combination produces an exemplary response. The narrative presents a frame story set in a distant future after the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet, and the bulk of the prescient climate sf novel is presented as a novelistic rendering of this pre-apocalyptic scenario. This combination allows the reader to consider the temporal scale, producing a medium scale, which allows the reader to grasp the complexity of the problem without being overwhelmed by its vastness. I argue that rather than exorcising our fears, such literary narratives can make the realities of climate change more present to contemporary readers.' (Publication abstract)