On the Poetic Imagery of Smoke in Warlpiri Songs

Bibliographic Data

ID2145003
AuthorsG Curran (0000-0003-4290-9186, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume28
Issue2
Pages183-196
Publication date2018-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropological Forum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00664677.2018.1443794
OpenAlexW2793910583
LanguageEN
References cited20

Smoke, an ever-present source of comfort in day-to-day Warlpiri lives, is also a powerful ritual symbol and theme in the poetic language of Warlpiri songs. Rather than signalling these soothing qualities, in this more formalised sung context, smoke symbolically alludes to tension, uncertainty and unknown liminal states of transition. Here, I analyse examples from Warlpiri song texts to argue that, rather than being a semantic paradox, the cultural symbolism surrounding smoke has a functional poetic purpose in that it flags circumstances of discomfort or unknown states within the Dreaming narratives upon which Warlpiri songs are centred. To illustrate this point, I analyse song imagery in which smoke and other visually similar phenomena are focal

Aesthetics · Art · Context (archaeology) · Liminality · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Poetry · Sociology · Symbol (formal) · Theme (computing) · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Computer Science · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Philosophy