When the post-colonial transforms into the national (“The narrow road to the deep north” by R. Flanagan)

Abstract

Australian literature, which has long developed within the framework of the British literary tradition, is increasingly turning to (re)thinking the history of the continent, acquiring the features of a special type of postcolonial literature - the literature of settler communities. This is clearly manifested in the novels of contemporary Australian writers. The article examines how the contemporary Australian novel reflects the continent’s colonial history and the ambivalent role of the settlers who were both colonizers and were colonized. The novels by P. Carey, K. Grenville and R. Flanagan show how settlers, having displaced the aborigines, assumed the role of an indigenous nation and formed their own national identity. The article notes that images of Aboriginal people begin to appear in Australian novels only at the end of the 20^th century. Particular attention is paid to R. Flanagan’s 2014 Booker Prize-winning novel “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”, which explores Australia’s recent history of the WWII period. We show that the author defines Australian identity against the background of British and Japanese national characters, using universal archetypal myth elements to create the image of a national hero.