| Alexis Wright is one of the most influential Aboriginal writers in the field of Australian literature. She is the first Aboriginal writer granted Miles Franklin award for her novel Carpentaria in 2007. Her great novel Carpentaria, which is mainly concentrated on contradictions between Gurfurritt International mining cooperation and the western and eastern Aboriginal tribes of Desperance in the background of northern Gulf of Carpentaria, is a huge and astonishing ethnic epic.In Carpentaria, Wright fuses the ancient legends, tales, Dreamtime and the beliefs of original totems with complicated realities in Aboriginal community. Rooting deeply in the soil of Aboriginal culture, Wright demonstrates an authentic Aboriginal world with the grandiose imagination and powerful narration.This thesis, enlightened by the theory of magic realism, analyzes three typical techniques of magic realism embodied in the novel so as to explore the true reality faced by Australian Indigenous people. The adoption of magic realism is aiming at getting back to reality and exploring the essence of everyday life which has profound practical meaning. By demonstrating such writing techniques of magic realism as blurred oppositions, symbolism and mythological archetypes embodied in the novel, the thesis is trying to reveal contradictions between the ancientness and the modernity in the process of colonization, and the dilemma situation between the Other images and self awareness, which are hidden deeply in the Aboriginal world.Through the analysis of the novel in the perspective of the magic realism, the thesis reveals that the adoption of magic realism not only better presents the cultural connotation of Aboriginal Australians, but also makes a great contribution to the aesthetic value and the reinforcement of themes reflected in Carpentaria. It is hoped that the analysis made in this thesis can have an access to understand political demands of Aboriginal Australians and an appeal to legalized recognition of their history. |
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