“All That Belongs to Absolute Dark”:Mapping Space and Naming Place in David Malouf's Remembering Babylon

This paper explores the dialectic between Western modes of spatialrepresentation and the cartographic discourses of Australia's indigenous peoples, and the possibility for a hybridised conflation of the two. Atheoretical reading-drawing upon contemporary theories of postcoloniality, poststructuralism, cartography and spatial epistemology-of DavidMalouf's 1994 novel Remembering Babylon is offered in support of theassertion that the monolithic discourse of colonialism necessitates thesuppression of alternative perspectives, and that Malouf's fictionconstitutes an essential intervention in contemporary debates regardingnationhood and authenticity.