Spatial Belonging: Approaching Aboriginal Australian Spaces in Contemporary Fiction

Abstract

Based upon the overall assumption that cultures can be seen as ensembles of narratives (Müller-Funk 2008: 171; translation of the original term Ensembles von Narrativen by the author of this study), this thesis sets out to approach indigenous Australian manifestations of space and belonging as represented in three contemporary novels by Aboriginal authors. Within this endeavour, the category of the narrative represents the ultimate conceptual and culturally specific nexus. This is due to the fact that when seeing life as storied (Bamberg 2009: 136) indigenous Australian narratives in the form of novels constitute an adequate backdrop for shedding light on the culturally specific spatial as well as narrative contingency of Aboriginal lifeworlds. In order to grasp the multilayered and volatile levels of Aboriginal manifestations of spatiality, this thesis conceptualizes indigenous Australian spaces as a form of belonging proceeding on the assumption that the notion of belonging represents a useful instrument for approaching the overall complexity of indigenous Australian spatial lifeworlds, specifically on their social, geographical and historical levels (cf. Miller 2006). As literary texts hold available a huge range of representations of spatiality, contemporary novels by indigenous Australian authors are a viable means for the analysis of the complexities of Aboriginal manifestations of spatial belonging on the basis of their fictional representations. To bridge the gap between culturally specific, extraliterary discourses on Aboriginal forms of spatial belonging and their negotiations in fictional narratives, this thesis implements the concept of worldmaking (cf. Goodmann 1985 [1978], Nünning/Nünning 2010a), which highlights the reciprocal relationship between literary texts and the non-literary worlds as well as their mutual construction. Regarding its corpus of primary literature, the dissertation focuses on widely known contemporary indigenous Australian novels That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (2012 [2010]), Carpentaria by Alexis Wright (2009 [2006]) and Anita Heiss s (2007a) Not Meeting Mr Right which offer a wide range of representations of Aboriginal forms of spatial belonging. As this thesis has been written from a non-indigenous perspective but approaches indigenous manifestations of spatiality and belonging, it must be stated at this point that this study is based on the awareness that the selected approach is only one possible option among countless others. Hence, this thesis sees itself as embedded within a never-ending and constantly changing process of knowledge construction and production that can be undertaken from a huge range of different points of view.