![]() ![]() ![]() It’s a place, in other words, in which ghosts and spirits are easy to imagine. It’s also infamous for the near-genocide of its indigenous population. Many escaped, many died, and there are all sorts of horror stories, including those concerning the alleged cannibal, Alexander Pearce. Then, there’s its violent history. Tasmania had some of Australia’s most brutal convict prisons. Why does pretty, verdant Tasmania work so well for a Gothic sensibility? To start with it has some forbidding (albeit beautiful) landscape – remote mountains, dense bush, mist and cold – and it’s an island, which provides an added layer of isolation. I was referring then primarily to the outback, but Tasmania, while not exactly “the outback”, has plenty to excite the Gothic imagination. I wrote in my first post that “Australia had (and has) plenty to inspire a Gothic imagination: strange unforgiving nightmarish landscapes, weird vegetation and imaginary creatures”. ![]() Well, here’s a start, because Sarah Kanake’s debut novel, Sing fox to me, is a good example of modern Tasmanian Gothic. ![]() I’ve always intended to post more on the topic, including one on Tasmanian Gothic. Back in late 2011, I wrote a Monday Musings post on 19th century Australian Gothic. ![]()
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