settler colonial studies blog
  • about
  • definition
  • books
  • journal

« Settlers with Bibles: Emily Colgan, Brian Fiu Kolia, Michael Mawson (eds), Rereading the Bible in the Wake of Colonisation, Routledge, 2027

Climate fiction as settler absolution: Nicole Seymour, ‘Comedy as White Immunity: Settler-Colonial Evasions in Contemporary US Cli-Fi’, Literature and Medicine, 44, 1, 2026, pp. 120-146

14Nov26

Abstract: This essay focuses on a set of recent US cli-fi novels that dance around settler colonialism—a primary driver of climate change—via comedic asides and other evasions. Comedy thus functions here as immunity in the sense of a conceptual prophylactic, allowing both white characters and white writers to imagine future adaptions that do not require a processing of the past or present. I link this metaphorical type of immunity to the literal, considering settler biowarfare (forced sterilization, spread of disease to nonimmune persons, etc.) and other attempts at Indigenous extermination as the unspoken background to these novels.

Share this:

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Like Loading...

Related


Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Closed

  • Settler colonialism is a global and transnational phenomenon, and as much a thing of the past as a thing of the present. Settlers 'come to stay': they are founders of political orders who carry with them a distinct sovereign capacity.
  • If you're a scholar, and you find some of your work featured on the blog, then chances are that we want it for our journal.
  • what’s new

    • Climate fiction as settler absolution: Nicole Seymour, ‘Comedy as White Immunity: Settler-Colonial Evasions in Contemporary US Cli-Fi’, Literature and Medicine, 44, 1, 2026, pp. 120-146
    • Settlers with Bibles: Emily Colgan, Brian Fiu Kolia, Michael Mawson (eds), Rereading the Bible in the Wake of Colonisation, Routledge, 2027
    • On settler emplacement: Nancy Menning, ‘Emplacement, the Settler Colonial Imagination, and Decolonization’, in Daniel Boscaljon, Verna Marina Ehret (eds), Engaging Culture, Nature, and Religion: Forrest Clingerman and the Importance of Emplacement, Bloomsbury, 2026
    • Diplomacy and evasion: Annemarie McLaren, ‘Indigenous Diplomacy and Colonial Entanglement Through the Native Institution of New South Wales’, History Compass, 2026
    • Unfree workers, but then settlers: Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Michael Quinlan, Unfree Workers: Insubordination and Resistance in Convict Australia, 1788-1860, Palgrave, 2022
    • Is it time? Andrew Thibaudeau, ‘”The Last of the Monacan”: Settler Time and Queer Time in “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains”‘, Poe Studies, 59, 2026, pp. 93-116
    • Sheepish settler colonialism? Irus Braverman, ‘The New Jewish Shepherd: Land Grabbing and Redemption in the Occupied West Bank’, American Anthropologist, 2026
    • Indigenous resistances: Linda Tabar, The Indigenous Anti-Colonial: A Palestinian Resistance Tradition and a World Beyond Settler Colonialism, Duke University Press, 2026
    • A settler for protection: Samuel Furphy, ‘Protector of Settlers? Charles Symmons and Aboriginal Protection in Western Australia, 1840-1855’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 2026
    • Genderising settler colonialism: Éloïse Décoste, ‘The Indian Act and the Gendered “Logic of Elimination”‘, McGill Law Journal, 71, 4, 2026, pp. 1001-1035
    • Federalism is settler colonialism: Zachary Jericho Couture, ‘Weaponizing Federalism for Settler Colonialism: Canadian Court (Mis-)use of Federalist Prinicples against Indigenous Jurisdiction’, McGill Law Journal, 71, 4, 2026, 1177-1217
    • Colonies for like-minded people: David R. Como, ‘Castles in the Air: Sectarian Puritanism, the Revolutionary Caribbean and the Forgotten Colony of New Warwick, Trinidad’, History, 2026
    • The tradwives of the settler imagination: Terra Sage Wallin, The Grammar of Return: Tradition, Gendered Performance, and Moral Formation in the Digital TradWife Movement, PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2026
    • Documentarying settler colonialism: Azraf Chowdhury, ‘The lens of resistance: Using No Other Land (2025) and The Settlers (2024) as contemporary documentaries to understand the Israeli settler project’,  Journal of Global Faultlines, 13, 2, 2026, pp. 155-179
    • Settlers see ‘surplus land’: Myrzantay Zhakyp, ‘Communicating Colonial Space: How Imperial Discourse Produced “Surplus Land” in the Kazakh Steppe’, Journal of Communication Inquiry, 2026
  • contribute

    email the editor


Blog at WordPress.com.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Reblog
  • Subscribe Subscribed
    settler colonial studies blog
    Join 285 other subscribers

    Have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.

  • settler colonial studies blog
    Copy shortlinkView post in Reader
    Manage subscriptionsSign upLog in
    Report this content
    Collapse this bar
%d