OUTBACK AND OUT WEST: THE SETTLER-COLONIAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMAGINARY

Ponce de Leon Alejandro

By Tom Lynch. University of Nebraska Press, 2022.

Outback and Out West: The Settler-Colonial Environmental Imaginary examines the ecological consequences of a settler-colonial imaginary by comparing expressions of settler colonialism in the literature of the American West and Australian Outback. In this powerful book, Lynch examines the shared themes of exogenous domination and the parallel methodologies of settlement in these regions –from pastoralism and homestead acts to afforestation initiatives and bioregional efforts at “belonging.” Lynch pairs the two nations’ texts to show how an analysis at the intersection of ecocriticism and settler colonialism requires a new canon that is responsive to the social, cultural, and ecological difficulties created by settlement in the West and Outback.

Outback and Out West draws out the regional Anthropocene dimensions of settler colonialism, considering such pressing environmental problems as habitat loss, groundwater depletion, and mass extinctions. Lynch studies the implications of our settlement heritage on history, art, and the environment through the cross-national comparison of spaces. The book asserts that bringing an ecocritical awareness to settler-colonial theory is essential for reconciliation with dispossessed Indigenous populations as well as reparations for ecological damages as we work to decolonize engagement with and literature about these places.

Tom Lynch is an Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he taught ecocriticism and place-conscious approaches to literature. His previous work includes Xerophilia: Ecocritical Explorations in Southwestern Literature. He also co-edited several volumes and served as editor of the journal Western American Literature for seven years.