DOES WATER DREAM IN DYSTOPIA? AQUATIC IMAGERY IN PAUL AUSTER’S IN THE COUNTRY OF LAST THINGS, NEVIL SHUTE’S ON THE SHORE AND CORMAC MCCARTHY’S THE ROAD
DOES WATER DREAM IN DYSTOPIA? AQUATIC IMAGERY IN PAUL AUSTER’S IN THE COUNTRY OF LAST THINGS, NEVIL SHUTE’S ON THE SHORE AND CORMAC MCCARTHY’S THE ROAD

Summary/Abstract: This paper briefly analyzes the aquatic imagery of three dystopian texts belonging to what hasbeen deemed as (post)apocalyptic fiction, a subgenre of dystopia. If On the Shore by Neil Shute (1957),one of the first novels dealing with the apocalyptic concern, was neglected by the critics, unfairly to acertain extent, In the Country of Last Things (1987) by Paul Auster and The Road by Cormac McCarthy(2006) are two well-known postmodern novels that have received a right amount of critical appraisal andpraise, especially the former. I will attempt to refer only to those studies that can bring light to the waythe image of water is dealt with by the authors of the three novels, resorting to a close reading ofsignificant passages. Seemingly the water in these environmental dystopias has a function of a mutedwitness, of an indifferent or even reluctant receptacle of so much excruciating suffering caused byreckless human behaviour, a darkened mirror in whose depths nevertheless invisible mysteries may bebrewing.

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