The Stolen River: Possession and Race Representation in Grenville's Colonial Narrative

Abstract

Grenville’s representations of race and power relations in The Secret River offer important insights into the strategies and performance of whiteness in Australian contemporary literature, particularly in relation to the idea of the ‘reconciliation’ between white Australia and Indigenous peoples. This article attempts to map a context for representations of race in The Secret River in order to contribute to critiques of literary texts as manifestations of cultural territories consistent with the places and times which produce them.