Watermark: a short story cycle

Watermark is a short story cycle exploring intergenerational and personal relationships in coastal communities. The stories observe the complexity of characters drawn together, but also separated, by family, topography and circumstance. Written to reflect experiences from the 1960s through to present times, the stories reveal individuals responding to the uncertainty and disorder of life-changing events and unexpected revelations. Located in a quintessentially Australian landscape, the characters transgress physical and metaphorical boundaries and experience pivotal moments of transformation, even if – and, as it will be argued, because – those times are fleeting or unsustainable. The stories oscillate between their autonomous status and their interconnection within the broader narrative framework of the short story cycle. This structural aesthetic enables continuity through recurring characters, settings and themes. Paradoxically, these elements combine to reflect fractured relationships and unstable characters against a backdrop that is constantly changing. The exegesis draws on the notion of liminality to explore the generic and thematic concerns that emerged during the composition of the stories, particularly in relation to the oppositions and paradoxes evinced above. It looks at the complexities and challenges of the short story cycle with close reference to three short story cycles with coastal settings – The Bodysurfers by Robert Drewe, The Turning by Tim Winton and Having Cried Wolf by Gretchen Shirm. These texts reveal that Australian short story writers regard the coastline as more than simply a setting; it is a place of transition and a viable site to explore character development and transformation.