Native Apocalypse in Claire G. Coleman’s The Old Lie

Bibliographic Data

ID20248255
AuthorsIva Polak (0000-0003-3061-4380, University of Zagreb, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume9
Issue3
Pages69
Publication date2020-07-28
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHumanities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2076-0787 • E-ISSN: 2076-0787
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/h9030069
OpenAlexW3046022412
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited11

Claire G. Coleman’s science fiction novel The Old Lie (2019) evokes the blemished chapters of Australia’s history as the basis of a dystopian futuristic Earth. By using the metaphor of a secular apocalypse (Weaver) wrapped in the form of a space opera, she interrogates historical colonialism on a much larger scale to bring to the fore the distinctive Indigenous experience of Australia’s terra nullius and its horrific offshoots: the Stolen Generations, nuclear tests on Aboriginal land and the treatment of Indigenous war veteran, but this time experienced by the people of the futuristic Earth. Following a brief introduction of the concept of the “Native Apocalypse” (Dillon) in the framework of Indigenous futurism, the paper discusses Coleman’s innovative use of space opera embedded in Wilfred Owen’s famous WWI poem “Dulce et Decorum Est”. The analysis focuses on four allegedly separate stories in the novel which eventually interweave into a single narrative about “the old lie”. In keeping with the twenty-first-century Indigenous futurism, Coleman’s novel does not provide easy answers. Instead, the end brings the reader to the beginning of the novel in the same state of disillusionment as Owen’s lyrical subject

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Colonialism · Dystopia · Indigenous · Literature · Narrative · Opera · Poetry · Sociology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction

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