ABSTRACT
Indigenous Australian author Alexis Wright employs traditional oral storytelling techniques and mythology that incorporate the Dreamtime and Indigenous Law, which are inextricably connected to each other as well as the land. In the process Wright revitalises magical realism as a literary style. However, Wright’s novels Carpentaria and The Swan Book demonstrate that while a text may exhibit magical realist elements, much of what we read exceeds the rubric of magical realism and reflects underlying cultural and artistic factors. In Carpentaria, Wright expands on what I call “commodity magical realism,” exploring the links between transnational capitalism and political collusion in the exploitation of natural resources with an iron ore mine. The Swan Book depicts a dystopian vision of a future world destroyed by climate change.
