A Politics of the Dreamtime: Destructive and Regenerative Rainbows in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria
Abstract
Focusing on Wright’s representation of the land, the river and the cyclone, the essay attempts to demonstrate ‘how playfully, flexibly and experimentally Wright moblilises a new form of magic realism in which realism (the vital) and the supervital are demonstrably folded into one another. In doing so, she creates a powerful new politicised narrative for our times, one that expresses a crisis of representation which is simultaneously committed to exposing an ecological crisis’ (405).
Please sign in to access this article and the rest of our archive.
Published 1 November 2008 in Volume 23 No. 4. Subjects: Aboriginal Australians - Literary portrayal, Aboriginal Dreamtime, Aboriginal religion & stories, Australian landscape - Literary portrayal, Magical Realism, Narrative techniques, Alexis Wright.
Cite as: Devlin-Glass, Frances. ‘A Politics of the Dreamtime: Destructive and Regenerative Rainbows in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 23, no. 4, 2008, doi: 10.20314/als.db10692a2e.