Convict hero-villains: a study of convict protagonists in gothic fiction from Australia

This study focuses on novels that have male convicts as protagonists and make use of the Gothic mode to explore Australia 's convict history. Utilising the concept of the hero-villain and other Gothic conventions, I trace how the representation of convicts changes over time, thus illustrating the cultural discourses that have emerged with regard to Australia's convict history. My central argument is that Australia 's convict origins were repressed for generations, and that Gothic literature has allowed a revisiting of this experience, the texts showing how the penal past has been represented and used in the colonial, modern and postmodern eras.