AustLit

'As the first novel written by an Indigenous Australian to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Alexis Wright’s 2006 epic Carpentaria traverses Australia’s traditionalist literary landscape and allows her readers access into the kaleidoscopic style of Aboriginal storytelling and history. Through her poignant depiction of a town in crisis, Wright challenges established notions of time and authenticity while considering the place of storytelling in contemporary Australia. Still feeling the effects of the white imperialism that arrived with the first fleet, Carpentaria’s predominantly white readership is forced to reassess whether it is truly ‘post colonial’. Through her fairly blunt, ironic characters who serve as representations of the division between Western pragmatism and Indigenous spirituality, Wright eases her readers into the long overdue flow of cross-racial dialogue.' (Publication abstract)