On the Poetic Imagery of Smoke in Warlpiri Songs

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2145003
AutoresG Curran (0000-0003-4290-9186, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen28
Número2
Páginas183-196
Fecha de publicación2018-04-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnthropological Forum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00664677.2018.1443794
OpenAlexW2793910583
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas20

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