Colonial/Postcolonial Ecologies and the Wilderness Myth in Australian and Canadian Literature

Abstract

This thesis explores representations of the wilderness myth in Australian and Canadian writings of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The wilderness myth, or the notion that there is such a thing as a “pristine” territory empty of humans, is a foundational concept in Australian and Canadian settler histories, where it has been used to establish a legal fiction of terra nullius to justify the taking of land from the Indigenous inhabitants. Focusing on poetry, fiction and non-fictional prose, this thesis engages with Postcolonial Studies and Ecocriticism to argue that its chosen literary works both uphold and resist the binary logic of Nature/Culture. The thesis also explores the ways the writings of early, colonial conservationists perpetuate the use of the wilderness myth to legitimise the marginalisation and dispossession of Indigenous peoples. The thesis comprises three main chapters. Chapter One addresses nineteenth-century literature and visual culture, examining Susanna Moodie’s guide to Canadian settlerlife, Roughing it in the Bush (1852), alongside the late-nineteenth century poetry of Duncan Campbell Scott and the early twentieth-century painting of Emily Carr. It explores a tension between the desire to romanticise the wilderness and an economic drive to realise its untapped resources. Chapter Two reads Patrick White’s Voss (1957) and David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon (1993), exploring the wilderness myth in relation to the Australian Outback. The chapter argues that eco-cosmological/eco-theological perspectives can be linked to the representation of Indigenous peoples and their relationship with the land in Australian novels. Chapter Three turns to Jane Urquhart’s Away (1993) and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (2003), reading these novels with relation to ecofeminist criticism. These novels explore the relationships between the wilderness myth and patriarchal power. The chapter argues that while Oryx and Crake skilfully demonstrates the dangers of the myth of the wilderness, Away often accepts settler ideologies without critique. Throughout, the thesis thus attends to the ways in which literature works to either perpetuate or dismantle and move beyond the wilderness myth. This thesis concludes that some nineteenth and twentieth-century writings are widely hailed as ecocritical in their challenge of colonial visions and framing of ecology. They strive to establish better relationships between humans and ecology, however, in doing so they commonly perpetuate the marginalisation of Indigenous people. Analysing the representations of settlers’ views of ecology in these writings, the thesis ultimately argues that the wilderness myth still maintains a strong grasp over some academic scholarship and literature by and about settlers. Moreover, the writings of conservationists especially sometimes appropriate rational dualisms (such as Culture/Nature), which directly or indirectly contribute to the marginalisation of Indigenous Australians and Canadians. Through its postcolonial readings of literature, this thesis makes a crucial intervention in ecocriticism by challenging the myth of the wilderness and its continued influence in Western thought.