Author Identifier

Theresa Ann Wilks: http://orcid.org/0009-0001-5307-8309

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts Honours

School

School of Arts and Humanities

First Supervisor

Aksel Dadswell

Second Supervisor

Donna Mazza

Abstract

Waterborne incorporates four eco-Gothic fiction narratives that, through a practice-led enquiry, examine how drawing upon the abject, by employing the Gothic tropes of violence and captivity within Australian settings, may be positioned to foreground environmental impacts from anthropocentrism, particularly upon bodies of water. Utilising eco-Gothic settings in water locations exhibiting ecological damage, from land clearing and water management practices, the fictional narratives may also highlight the physical, social and emotional impacts of adverse environmental change upon ourselves.

“High Tea and Acquisitions” followed time immersed at a freshwater lake that is choked with introduced weeds and becoming shallow with sediment. It is located on a government reserve in Stratham, Western Australia.

“Salt-finger” was set around beaches and dunes along Geographe Bay, at a spot where coastal birds breed and vehicles are allowed on the beach. I, and other locals, regularly walk along the sand collecting and disposing of the washed-up rubbish.

“Those Small Things” germinated within my imagination after time immersed at Lake Dumbleyung in the Wheatbelt, where deforestation and rising salinity is a huge problem.

“The Dawning” was set around the silted-up mouth of the Capel River near Peppermint Grove Beach, in January heat and during the school holidays. The stagnating pool at the end of the river holds trapped fish.

The four short stories are followed by an exegesis examining, through an eco-Gothic lens, links between anthropocentrism and environmental degradation. The emotional, physical and intellectual responses to my personal immersion, undertaken in the four separate Western Australian waterbody settings, provided unique inspiration for each individual narrative space. I Drew upon on the Gothic elements within mythical archetypes of European and North African origin, so the short stories examine relationships with the natural environment from familiar perspectives. They evoke archetypal themes of isolation, love, greed or ambition, which lead to physical or psychological consequences.

The exegesis defines the immersive, practice-led approaches used for drafting and constructing each element of the creative artefacts. It examines the ways in which the four narratives explore environmental damage via the real or metaphorical tropes of violence and captivity; with specific reference to the abject, where borders and boundaries are being resisted or transgressed.

DOI

10.25958/aws7-p959

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