The Gothic as Frame for Postcolonial Linked Narratives

This research seeks to examine the suitability of the short story composite form, also referred to as short story cycle, for the expression of the uncanny, as inferred present in the work of Australian writer Simpson Newland and described by Freud in his 1919 essay. Little critical attention has been invested in Newland’s Australian postcolonial literary Gothic, and the paper aims to draw attention to it as an important subject, to be analysed as model for and precursor to later story composites of nationhood.

Freud’s “The Uncanny” provides a psychoanalytical framework, for analysing Newland’s representation of the Australian bush as uncanny, of his recurring colonial anxieties that erupt in its vicinity and need to be surmounted, and of death as his driver. Newland’s 1925 memoir, two novels, Paving the Way (1893) and Blood Tracks of the Bush (1900), based on autobiographical stories, and his speeches, short articles, and personal letters inform this paper and, therefore, my own creative practice in the writing of a short story composite, wherein Newland appears as protagonist.

Whilst Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver, Victoria Kuttainen, Andrew McCann, Gerry Turcote and others have published on Australian colonial Gothic novels and stories, and I will draw on their scholarship, this paper suggests that Newland’s work should be brought under closer scrutiny.

Victoria Kuttainen analyses, with direct reference to the short story composite, inherent dangers in writers privileged by whiteness researching postcolonial fiction. Gelder suggests the form’s inherent suitability for postcolonial projects. My reflexive practice takes these ideas into account.

The paper uncovers uncomfortable truths and fictions. Newland’s complex attempts to bear witness resulted in the suppression of at least some of his work and the generally poor critical response to his oeuvre. Research for this paper is central to the development of my short story composite work in progress. Publication of either or both could, potentially, bring Newland’s literary Gothic strategies wider critical attention.