AustLit

'Though previous scholarship into alternate history narratives has been conducted, to date a set of "poetics" that defines this genre has not yet been developed (Chapman and Yoke 21). Indeed, there is a significant gap in knowledge regarding the alternate history genre; a collection of papers appearing in Classic and Iconoclastic Alternate History Science Fiction, edited by Edgar L. Chapman and Carl B. Yoke, identify this gap: "For while numerous alternate history tales have now been written, … no comprehensive poetics of this genre … has been developed" (21). This article seeks to address part of this gap by first coining a new term for the genre (Uchronic fiction) and by using two examples of alternate history narratives unique and particular to Australia (John Hooker's The Bush Soldiers and John A. Scott's N) to highlight some of the hitherto undefined "poetics" for this genre as they appear in these two examples of Uchronic fiction. These two novels also bring to the fore serious issues that are relevant to the discussion regarding the political agenda on the part of authors John Hooker and John A. Scott, both of whom do not shy away from addressing white Australia's historically poor treatment of Aboriginal people or from Australia's historical ambivalence and hostility toward nonwhite immigrants and people from Asia.' (Introduction)