Animal Communication in Hyper-Contemporary Australian Literature: Genre, Ethics, and Climate Change

Abstract

This project investigates how genre conditions the representation of animals in hyper-contemporary Australian fiction engaged with the environmental devastation of climate change. Analysing five novels by settler authors - Robbie Arnott’s 'Limberlost' (2022), Erin Hortle’s 'The Octopus and I' (2020), Charlotte McConaghy’s 'Once There Were Wolves' (2021), Laura Jean McKay’s 'The Animals in That Country' (2020), and Chris Flynn’s 'Mammoth' (2020) - I examine how these works navigate the representational and ethical complexities of the Anthropocene by centring animal presence and perspectives. This thesis traces how writers employ a spectrum of generic modes, from realism to speculative fiction, to depict animals and their interactions with humans, demonstrating how diverse genres convey animal presence and agency. Crucial to this research is my theorisation of ‘animal communication,’ a concept that transcends anthropomorphism by exploring how writers’ representations of gaze, behaviour, voice, and human-animal interactions depict animal presence and subjectivity without relying solely on animal interiority. This thesis challenges Amitav Ghosh’s critique of realism, demonstrating how the realist mode, alongside speculative and experimental approaches, addresses the vast, nonhuman dimensions of climate change effectively. Furthermore, it examines critically settler-colonial legacies embedded in these narratives, focusing on their portrayal of violence, care, and ethics in human-animal relationships on colonised land. By revealing how genre shapes the representation of animal subjectivity and environmental ethics through animal communication, this thesis offers a nuanced perspective on contemporary Australian literature at the intersection of environmental ethics, animal studies, and literary form. Its findings contribute to broader discussions of the power of storytelling to reimagine human-animal relationships and inspire ethical engagement in the Anthropocene.