Writing Orality: Australian Aboriginal Voices in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria

ABSTRACTAustralian Aboriginal stories have thrived for thousands of years through oral tradition and Aboriginal author Alexis Wright invokes this tradition in the construction of her novel Carpentaria. This article investigates the orality of Carpentaria, which stages “oral” narrators who speak differently to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal readerships. First, using Bakhtin’s notion of “speech genre”, the article explores why Wright creates these two narrative layers. Second, it investigates the language use and tone of voice in the framing narrative that addresses non-Indigenous readers. Third, it looks closely at Wright’s linguistic experimentation in the embedded narrative, creating multiple oral effects through language and mobilising the storytelling dynamics of performance, spontaneity, rhythms and mnemonics. Finally, it discusses how her creative use of orality plays off and with its Western literary conceptions and enacts cross-cultural communication between the two readerships.KEYWORDS: Oralityorality in literatureaboriginal storytellingspeech genreCarpentaria Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Van Toorn, Writing Never Arrives Naked, 158.2 Sefton-Rowston, “Hope at the End of the World,” 367.3 Van Toorn, “Indigenous Texts and Narratives,” 29.4 Wright, “Politics of writing,” 13.5 Holgate, “Unsettling Narratives,” 634.6 Heiss, Minter, and Jose, eds. The Macquarie PEN, xiii.7 Angus, “The Creative Opportunity of Carpentaria,” 4.8 Wright, “On Writing Carpentaria,” 140.9 Loomes, “Armageddon begins here,” 130.10 Riemenschneider, “Australian Aboriginal Writing in English,” 39.11 Heiss, Dhuuluu-Yala, 28.12 Wright, “On Writing Carpentaria,” 140.13 Wright, Carpentaria, 1.14 Rodoreda, “Orality and Narrative Invention,” 1.15 Federici, “Translating counter-memory,” 271.16 Bakhtin, Dostoevsky, 192.17 Sharrad, “Beyond Capricornia,” 55.18 Jose, “Deconstructing the Dumpling,” 121.19 Knudsen, “Ambiguity and Assurance in My People,” 111.20 Loomes, “Armageddon begins here,” 133.21 Carr, “On the Brink of Possibility,” 8.22 Ibid.23 Rodoreda, “Orality and Narrative Invention,” 6.24 Ibid., 7.25 Bakhtin, Speech Genres, 95.26 Ibid., 100.27 Ibid., 95.28 Morson, “Addressivity,” 55.29 Bakhtin, Speech Genres, 60.30 Bakhtin, “Discourse in the Novel,” 259.31 Bakhtin, Speech Genres, 94.32 Ibid., 97.33 Ibid., 79.34 Ibid., 85.35 Ibid., 95–96.36 Wright, Carpentaria, 1.37 Devlin-Glass, “A Politics of the Dreamtime,” 394.38 Cummins, “The Space and Time of Imagined Sound,” 3.39 Bakhtin, Speech Genres, 97.40 Rodoreda, “Orality and Narrative Invention,” 8.41 Bakhtin, Speech Genres, 97.42 Bakhtin, “The Problem of the Text,” 30.43 Bakhtin, Speech Genres, 80.44 Ibid., 97.45 Carpentaria, 478.46 Carpentaria, 431.47 The examples of Kriol identified in the novel are based on the Kriol-English Interactive Dictionary edited by Jason Lee, with copyright belonging to the Australian Society for Indigenous Languages.48 Schultze-Berndt, Meakins, and Angelo, “Kriol,” 249 Carpentaria, 224.50 Carpentaria, 29.51 Hanley, “The Dreaming,” 305.52 Wright, “On Writing Carpentaria,” 228.53 Birns, “The Notions of Permanence,” 53.54 Cited in Malcolm, “Australian Creoles,” 2.55 Malcolm, “Australian Creoles,” 2.56 Ibid., 9.57 Eades, Aboriginal ways of using English, 133.58 Roe and Muecke, Gularabulu, 122.59 Ibid., 123.60 Butcher, “Linguistic Aspects,” 639.61 Carpentaria, 378, 52, 57, 80 and 100, respectively.62 Castro-Koshy and Lehartel, Agrégation Anglais, 125.63 Ibid., 125.64 Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 62.65 Carpentaria, 7, 119, 268, respectively.66 Cited in Bandia, Translation as Reparation, 109.67 Ibid, 109.68 Walakuku means “humpy” according to Ilana Mushin’s work A Grammar of (Western) Garrwa (De Gruyter Mouton, 2012), 359.69 Wirriwidji means “whirlwind” according to A Grammar of (Western) Garrwa (De Gruyter Mouton, 2012), 190.70 Carpentaria, 122, 276.71 Carpentaria, 258.72 This is based on Koch and Oesterreicher’s framework model on orality and literacy. Koch and Oesterreicher, “Schriftlichkeit und kommunikative Distanz,” 346–375.73 Carpentaria, 493.74 Carpentaria, 470 (italics added).75 Fisher, “Untidy Times,” 181–2.76 Castro-Koshy, “The Poetics of Relation,” 128.77 Castro-Koshy and Lehartel, Agrégation anglais, 92.78 Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, “The Empire Writes Back,” 126.79 Ibid., 126.80 In terms of Aboriginal Australia, anthropologist Alan Rumsey similarly notes that for the Ngarinyin country it was a founding totemic ancestor (Possum) who installed the Ngarinyin language in the landscape, thereby establishing the region as the Ngarinyin country, and he therefore argues for a direct relation between language and Country. See Rumsey, “Tracks, Traces, and Links to Land in Aboriginal Australia, New Guinea, and beyond,” 25.81 Carpentaria, 274, 276 respectively.82 Carpentaria, 10.83 Ashcroft, Caliban’s Voice, 139.84 Wright and Arnold, “The Future of Swans,” 28.85 Machosky, “Alexis Wright’s Storytelling Novel,” 4.86 Ibid., 4.87 Carpentaria, 3.88 Loomes, “Armageddon begins here,” 131.89 Carpentaria, 327.90 Carpentaria, 5, 375.91 Finnegan, Oral Traditions, 19.92 Ibid., 19.93 Carpentaria, 281, 395, 462, 87, respectively.94 Carpentaria, 49, 224.95 Carpentaria, 74, 310, 111.96 NG, “Alexis Wright’s Novel Activism,” 179.97 Carpentaria, 35.98 Sharifian, “A Cultural-conceptual Approach,” 12.99 Malcolm and Rochecouste, “Event and Story Schemas,” 266.100 Sharifian, “Schema-based Processing,” 120.101 Carpentaria, 375.102 D’Andrade, Cognitive Anthropology, 149.103 Wagner, Symbols that Stand for Themselves, 21.104 Ruth Finnegan, “Oral literature in Africa,” 44 (emphasis added).105 Minchin, “Spatial Memory,” 10.106 Ibid., 10.107 Ibid., 10.108 Ibid., 11.109 Ibid., 11.110 Ibid., 12.111 Ibid., 12.112 Ibid., 12.113 Ibid., 12.114 Ibid., 17.115 Ibid., 13.116 Ibid., 17.117 Ibid., 18.118 Carpentaria, 486.119 Carpentaria, 31.120 Carpentaria, 1–2.121 Carpentaria, 375 (emphasis added).122 Carpentaria, 375 (emphasis added).123 Wright, “On Writing Carpentaria,” 225.124 Carpentaria, 372.125 Amanda, Brady and Bradley, “A place of substance,” 380.126 Russell. “The Geo-Graphics,” 123.127 Rumsey, “Tracks, Traces, and Links,” 36.128 Strehlow, Aranda Traditions, 25.129 Deborah Bird, “Sacred site,” 104.130 Ibid., 104.131 Strehlow, Aranda Traditions, 6.132 Carpentaria, 61.133 Joseph, “Dreaming Phantoms,” 12.134 Wagner, Symbols that Stand for Themselves, 22.135 Carpentaria, 519.136 Wright, “On Writing Carpentaria,” 222.