The Anthropocene and Settler Moves to Innocence in Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport

Abstract: Lucy Ellmann’s 2019 novel Ducks, Newburyport , which presents the internal monologue of an anxious mother of four, is a snapshot of American life in the Anthropocene, as the protagonist worries about her complicity in environmental degradation. The novel illustrates that the Anthropocene is a settler move to innocence that disguises both the role of settler colonialism in causing the climate crisis and the responsibility of settlers to work toward decolonization. It makes this critique through its attention to Indigenous history, the protagonist’s attitudes toward her family’s resource use, and her daughter Stacy’s Indigenous identity. Throughout the novel, interspersed with the protagonist’s monologue, is the story of another mother: a cougar who loses, searches for, and is eventually reunited with her kittens. The paralleling of these stories and Stacy’s identification with the cougar suggest that hope for the future lies in decolonization and the restoration of kinship ties with non-humans.