Settler colonialism’s nonsense chronotope: Shirley Bricout, ‘Making (Non)Sense of the Sea, Sand and Self in The Boy in the Bush by D.H. Lawrence and M.L. Skinner’, Études Lawrenciennes, 2023 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler colonialism’s nonsense chronotope: Shirley Bricout, ‘Making (Non)Sense of the Sea, Sand and Self in The Boy in the Bush by D.H. Lawrence and M.L. Skinner’, Études Lawrenciennes, 2023

18Nov23

Excerpt: To the Australian characters, the sea is a constant reminder of their interaction with the British Isles and the legacy of the Swan River colony established in 1829. The sea itself is “empty” (BB 24, 44); it is measured in the number of weeks the crossing takes (six) and Britain is still called “Home” (BB 34, 392). This imperial common history is very vivid in the memories of the locals when Jack arrives, since they have just celebrated the half-centenary of the settlement on the Swan River. Mollie Skinner recalls in her memoirs how Lawrence had encouraged her not to write about the settlers in the earlier colony but “from the time when [she] became aware of what went on in this empty country” (114).

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