AustLit

The article examines how these two works offer examples of post-colonial transformation of the child, two versions of the story of the child of the wilderness breaking into the circle of civilization. David Malouf's use of the child figure, in particular, demonstrates how a metaphor that has been utilized to convey the primitive nature of colonial subjects can be reshaped into a vision of post-colonial possibility. Malouf demonstrates the extent to which post-colonial futures are limited only by the limits of the imagination.