Poetics and Politics of Relationality in Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Fiction (Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures)

This is the first sustained study of the formal particularities of works by Bruce Pascoe, Kim Scott, Tara June Winch, and Alexis Wright. Drawing on a rich theoretical framework that includes approaches to relationality by Aboriginal thinkers, Edouard Glissant, and Jean-Luc Nancy, and recent work in New Formalism and narrative theory, the book illustrates how they use a broad range of narrative techniques to mediate, negotiate, and temporarily create networks of relations that interlink all elements of the universe. Through this focus on relationality, Aboriginal writing gains both local and global significance. Locally, these narratives assert Indigenous sovereignty by staging an unbroken interrelatedness of people and their land. Globally, they intervene into current discourses about humanity's relationship with the natural environment, urging readers to acknowledge our interrelatedness with and dependence on the land that sustains us. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Towards a Poetics and Politics of Relationality The Politics of Form Relationality and Relational Storytelling Chapter Outlines Notes Works Cited Chapter 1: Non-Human (Narrative) Authority in Bruce Pascoe’s Earth Dialogue and Relationality Non-Human Narrative Authority Listening and Laughing Rethinking Narrative Authority Notes Works Cited Chapter 2: Place-Based Storytelling in Kim Scott’s Benang and That Deadman Dance Place-Based Storytelling in Benang Plot Structure and the Sounds of Place Multiperspectivity and Polyphony Travelling the Story Together Place-Based Storytelling in That Deadman Dance Being Together The Primacy of Place Pluralistic Storytelling Stories in and from the Land Notes Works Cited Chapter 3: Precarious Relations in Tara June Winch’s Swallow the Air Tense Switching and Present-Tense Narration Evading Closure and Stability Fluidity as a Structural Principle Notes Works Cited Chapter 4: Non-Egocentric Relations and Ambiguity in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria Frame Narrative and Doubly Deictic ‘You’ Multiple Addressees and Embedded Storytelling We-Narration and Indeterminacy Multiple Stories, Multiple Perspectives, Multiple Voices Telling a Story of All Times Notes Works Cited Chapter 5: Travelling Narratives and Community in Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book Travelling Narratives Oblivia as a Figure of Relationality The Ambivalent Promise of Community Intertextuality, Community, and Aboriginal Sovereignty Notes Works Cited Chapter 6: Stories, Language, and Sharing in Kim Scott’s Taboo Sharing and Language Narrating a Story That Abides in Place Empowerment through Relational Storytelling Notes Works Cited Chapter 7: Conclusion: Experiencing Relationality The Value of Reading Aboriginal Fiction Contemporary Aboriginal Fiction and the Promise of Relationality Notes Works Cited Index "This is the first sustained study of the politics of form in contemporary Australian Aboriginal fiction. Poetics and Politics of Relationality investigates how narratives by Kim Scott, Alexis Wright, Bruce Pascoe, and Tara June Winch employ formal devices to emphasise the significance of relations with the environment"-- Provided by publisher