Reading Place and Self Contrapuntally in Australian Fiction post-1980s: Unsettling the Settler-Colony

This dissertation examines how Australian fiction post-1980s negotiates constructions of place and self amid shifting socio-political contexts. It analyses twelve texts through a contrapuntal method across three chapters: suburban fiction, colonial gothic, and postapocalyptic narratives. Drawing on postcolonial, Indigenous, and genre theories, it explores how Anglo-Celtic, multicultural, and Indigenous narratives critique settler-colonial histories and national identity. Chapter 1 reframes suburbs as a contested space; Chapter 2 reimagines the gothic through Indigenous vitality; Chapter 3 presents apocalypse as colonial continuity. The study reveals how genre and temporality mediate literary reckonings with belonging, sovereignty, and alternative imaginings of place and self.