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Looter of the Dreamings: Xavier Herbert and the Taking of Kaijek's Newsong Story
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-16, 19:05 authored by Sansom, BIn his novels and stories of the Australian frontier, Xavier Herbert distances himself from anthropologists whom he resents because they have professional licence to act as looters of the Dreamings. Yet, as 'artist', Herbert is unable to admit the extent to which his own story-forms are taken from Aboriginal productions. In those writings completed after Capricornia and before he finally turns to compose Poorfella my Country, he keeps much of his borrowing secret and his deceptions lead both to a guilty preoccupation with looting as a theme and to the production of stories with missing middles. (Interventions of the Dreamings are left out of the printed versions.) While he acts as cultural broker, honest broking is impeded by Herbert's Romantic self-vision (portrait of the 'creative artist' as a young dog) and by the universalisation that denies cultural difference spuriously to assert the unity of human artistic experience in its stead. I show how Herbert's authorial practise makes him the very semblance of the anthropologist. He, likewise, is a looter of the Dreamings.
History
Publication title
OceaniaVolume
76Pagination
83-104ISSN
0029-8077Department/School
Aboriginal LeadershipPublisher
Sydney UniversityPlace of publication
SydneyRights statement
Copyright 2006 Oceania Publications, University of SydneyRepository Status
- Restricted