Outback and Out West

Tom Lynch is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is the author of Xerophilia: Ecocritical Explorations in Southwestern Literature and the editor of Thinking Continental: Writing the Planet One Place at a Time (Nebraska, 2017) and El Lobo: Readings on the Mexican Gray Wolf.

"In this highly personal and eloquent meditation comparing US and Australian environmental discourses, Lynch adds a creative touch to the field of settler-colonial studies."-N. Birns, Choice "Outback and Out West epitomizes the relevance of ecocriticism and comparative literary analysis to the task of moving us beyond the settler-colonial environmental imaginary to more sustainable social and environmental relations. Put this book at the top of your must-read list."-Alyson L. Greiner, Great Plains Quarterly "By telling stories of Indigenous renewal along with those of settler violence and stories of environmental resilience and restoration along with those of environmental destruction, Outback and Out West offers a powerful model for an ecologically minded decolonial critical practice that current scholars in western US, Australian, and environmental studies now can take up, empowered with this book as blueprint."-Audrey Goodman, American Literary History "The breadth, the detail, and the lucidity of Lynch's readings of these two regions' settler-colonial texts . . . make Outback and Out West a must-read contribution to eco-literary studies."-Andrew Rose, H-Environment "Outback and Out West is a must-read for anyone interested in the US West and the Australian Outback, as well as in ecocriticism focused on arid lands."-Kathryn C. Dolan, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment “A formidable book. Outback and Out West is guided by a crucial insight: not only do settler societies develop in places that are elsewhere, on Indigenous lands away from colonizing countries of origin, but they also entertain enduring relationships with places that are simultaneously a part of and yet stubbornly distinct from themselves. It is a complex relation, and the ‘Outback’ and the ‘West’ emerge as constituent parts of the settler-colonial national imaginaries of Australia and the United States: they are these settler nations’ indispensable and meaningful other ‘others.’”-Lorenzo Veracini, author of The World Turned Inside Out: Settler Colonialism as a Political Idea “Tom Lynch is an expert on both American and Australian literature and history, and he deftly weaves together the two cultural strands in a way that illuminates both. No other study uses literature as the primary window into the two cultures quite like this book does, employing ecocriticism and settler-colonial theory as the primary scholarly approaches. Lynch is deeply familiar with the subject matter and offers an engaging, personal angle.”-Scott Slovic, coeditor of the series Routledge Studies in World Literatures and the Environment series

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsField Notes: ResemblingIntroduction: A Genealogy of Family ResemblanceField Notes: Exploring1. This Very Spot: Explorer Retracings, Whitefella DreamingsField Notes: Naming and Preserving2. Strange Lands: The Lexicon of Landscapes and the Legacy of National ParksField Notes: Herding3. Cattle Country: The (Eco)pastoral ImaginaryField Notes: Gardening4. “Nothing but Land”: Women’s Pioneer Gardens and the Settler ImaginaryField Notes: Belonging5. Becoming Native: Eco-memoir, Bioregionalism, and Uncanny Settler BelongingConclusion: Of Paruku and Ponca CornNotesBibliographyIndex