Between Belonging and Dwelling: The Hospitality of David Malouf's Remembering Babylon

Nicolette Bragg

doi:10.5130/csr.v21i2.3955

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Published: Nov 25, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/csr.v21i2.3955

Keywords:

nation, colonialism, Remembering Babylon, hospitality

Nicolette Bragg

Cornell University

Abstract

This article argues that David Malouf’s Remembering Babylon relates two narratives, one of hospitality and one of the nation. Rather than corroborating each other, these narratives conflict. By emphasising the novel’s account of hospitality and the accommodation of the stranger, this article intervenes in readings of the novel as a national allegory. Rather than simply a legacy of colonialism with revised legitimacy, the nation in Remembering Babylon signals the failure of hospitality.

Issue

Vol 21 No 2 (2015): New Materialisms

Section

Articles (Peer Reviewed)

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Author Biography

Nicolette Bragg, Cornell University

Nicolette Bragg is a PhD candidate in English Language and Literature at Cornell University. She specialises in Anglophone world literature and critical theory and holds a minor in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her dissertation examines philosophical metaphors of birth and argues for the interdependencies of theory and maternity.

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Nicolette Bragg, Cornell University