The Road to Nowhere: Myths of Homeland and Expulsion in Australian Road Stories

Abstract

Exegesis: Through the lens of Richard Slotkin’s theory of the mythogenesis of the frontier, the exegetical component of the thesis proposes that the circular process of analysis and regeneration of the violent mythology of the frontier in both Australian and American literature has dominated the road writing genre. The triumphant frontier narrative of America and the transcendent failure frontier narrative of Australia repeat in contemporary road writing. Road stories featuring women and characters from positions of cultural, ethnic, class, religious and sexual difference offer one possibility for the disruption of this process. Australian road stories Hiam by Eva Sallis, All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld and Floundering by Romy Ash offer a reimagining of road stories beyond the frontier legacies of racial, sexual and class oppression. Ross Gibson’s theory of badlands in Australia, which are narratives set in natural locations which attract more atrocities to occur, informs my approach to the reading of these texts.