‘A Kind of Blessing’: David Malouf and the Spirit of the Embodied Word

Abstract

Body, spirit and creative word are significant elements in David Malouf’s work: his imaginative and poetical language gives voice to the subtleties of life, revealing both their spiritual and physical dimensions. My analysis is based on the work of the anthropologist and macro-historian Riane Eisler and on Raimon Panikkar’s theory of the creative word versus scientistic term. I will use the intercultural and partnership perspectives of Panikkar and Eisler’s work as a philosophical and critical background to show how in his work Malouf gives form to a world of spiritual epiphanies, with the realities of everyday life transmuted into a spiritual dimension through the intensity of the creative imagination.

Bibliography

Brennan, Bernadette. 2011. Singing it anew: David Malouf’s Ransom. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 11, 1: 1-12. http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/view/ 1846/ 2629 (consulted on 24-3-2013).

Capra, Fritjof. [3rd ed.] 1982. The Tao of Physics. An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism. London: HarperCollins Flamingo.

Daniel, Helen. [Sept-Nov] 1996. Interview with David Malouf. Australian Humanities Review. http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-Sept- 1996/intermal.html (consulted on 10-3-2013).

Eisler, Riane. 2002. The Dynamics of Cultural and Technological Evolution: Domination Versus Partnership. World Futures, 58, 2-3: 159-174.

Indyk, Ivor.1993. David Malouf (Australian Writers). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Malouf, David. 1975. Johnno. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.

Malouf, David. 1980. An Imaginary Life. Woollhara: Picador Pan Books.

Malouf, David. 1982. Child’s Play. London: Chatto & Windus.

Malouf, David. 1985. Fly Away Peter. London: Chatto & Windus.

Malouf, David. 1993. Remembering Babylon. London: Chatto & Windus.

Malouf, David. 1982. The Only Speaker of His Tongue. Antipodes. Ringwood: Penguin Books, 68-72.

Malouf, David. 1996. The Conversations at Curlow Creek. Toronto: Alfred Knopf.

Malouf, David. 2000. Blacksoil Country. Dream Stuff. London: Chatto & Windus, 116- 130.

Malouf, David. 2006. Every Move You Make. Sydney: Chatto & Windus.

Malouf, David. 2007. Typewriter Music. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.

Malouf, David. 2009. Ransom. Sydney: Knopf/Random: House.

McDonald, Avis. 1988. Beyond Language: David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life. Ariel, 19, 1: 45-54.

Muktananda, Swami. 1989. From the Finite to the Infinite, vol. II. South Fallsburg

(NY): Syda Foundation.

Nettelbeck, Amanda ed. 1993. Provisional Maps: Critical Essays on David Malouf. Nedlands: Centre for Studies in Australian Literature, Western Australia.

Panikkar, Raimon. 2007. Lo spirito della parola. Milano: Bollati Boringhieri.

Panikkar, Raimon. 2000. Religion, Philosophy and Culture. Trans. Robert Vachon. Polylog: Forum for Intercultural Philosophy 1. http://them.polylog.org/1/fpr- en.htm#s9 (consulted on 17-1-2014).

Papastergiadis, Nikos. [July] 1994. David Malouf and the Languages for Landscape: An Interview. Ariel, 25, 3: 83-94.

Ramsey-Kurz, Helga. 2003. Lives Without Letters: The Illiterate Other in An Imaginary Life, Remembering Babylon and The Conversations at Curlow Creek. Ariel, 34, 2-3: 115-133.

Riem, Antonella, Maria Renata Dolce, Stefano Mercanti & Caterina Colomba ed. 2013. The Tapestry of the Creative Word in Anglophone Literatures. Udine: Forum.

Shantananda, Swami. 2003. The Splendor of Recognition. An Exploration of the Pratyabhijna-hrdayam, a Text of the Ancient Wisdom of the Soul. South Fallsburg (NY): Syda Foundation.

Taylor, Andrew. 1999. Origin, Identity and the Body in David Malouf’s Fiction. Australian Literary Studies, 19, 1: 3-14.

Turcotte, Gerry. 1990. On David Malouf. Writers in Action. Gerry Turcotte ed. Sydney: Currency Press, 45-62.

vanden Driesen, Cynthia. 2009. Writing the Nation: Patrick White and the Indigene. Amsterdam: Rodopi.