The Theme of Ageing in a Postcolonial World in Australian Literature

Abstract

This paper explores the theme of ageing in Australian literature through a postcolonial lens, emphasizing how ageing is represented as both a personal and collective experience shaped by historical trauma, colonial legacies, and cultural survival. In works such as Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria, David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon, and Andrew McGahan’s The White Earth, elderly characters function as custodians of memory, carriers of cultural resistance, and witnesses to the unsettled histories of colonization. For Indigenous characters, ageing is tied to resilience and cultural continuity, with elders preserving oral traditions and resisting the erasure of identity under colonial pressures. For non-Indigenous figures, ageing often reveals anxieties around belonging, inheritance, and the unsettled guilt of colonial dispossession. These narratives demonstrate that ageing is not simply a biological process but also a historical one, deeply entwined with the negotiation of identity and land. By portraying the elderly as cultural anchors and critical voices, Australian literature highlights how memory and survival remain central to the ongoing process of decolonization. Ageing thus becomes a metaphor for endurance, resistance, and the persistent influence of history, reminding us that the past continues to shape the present in a postcolonial world.

DOI - https://doi.org/10.65525/SVUP.9788199392021.2025.86-93.