Crime, punishment, and death: Reading finitude and the self in David Malouf’s ‘The Conversations at Curlow Creek’

The present paper reads David Malouf’s 1996 novel Conversations at Curlow Creek as portraying a vivid and realistic picture of events relating to crime punishment in colonial Australia the early nineteenth century. depiction death penalty accorded bushranger Daniel Carney under supervision Irish sheriff Michael Adair New South Wales thus resonates with numerous historical accounts incidents that actually happened. novel, however, does more than only provide accurate representation it also presents having undergone rather dramatic transformation process conversing before latter’s execution. paper, drawing on views German philosopher Martin Heidegger, argues realization inevitable mortality, facing certain characterizes this change Adair’s nature worldview. It concludes by suggesting acceptance his finitude intimates way being world not subverts procedures administering convicts but indicates limits polarized identity politics shapes country times.