| Abstract | The thesis offers a close reading of the figure of the swan in Alexis Wright’s The Swan Book, a multi- layered futuristic novel dealing with a series of issues facing contemporary Australia, ranging from the continuing mistreatment of the Indigenous populations to environmental exploitation. Yet, according to the author herself, the main source of inspiration for the novel were precisely swans, that is, chance conversations about displaced Australian black swans, which, as she learnt, were sighted in parts of the country they do not normally inhabit. Indeed, the story of the novel is packed not only with flocks of literal swans, but also with intertextual references to swan-inspired literature and art, which testify to their cultural and symbolic potency. However, as the thesis argues, Wright’s swans do not simply form a poetic backdrop to the novel: on the contrary, the figure of the swan, on all its levels of meaning, is crucial for the understanding and interpretation of the major issues that The Swan Book addresses. In order to illustrate this, the four chapters of the thesis analyse the role of Wright’s swans in addressing climate change and environmental degradation in the novel; their importance in representing and drawing attention to marginalisation, displacement and (un)belonging, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal; the swans as figures of positive, productive cultural negotiation; and finally, the swan story created as a result of this process, which, as it in fact proves to be the story of The Swan Book itself, reveals that the swans in fact function not only as major, active characters in the novel, but also as the key factor in determining every aspect of the narrative. Ultimately, the thesis proposes that the successful creation of the swan story functions as a glimmer of hope in the novel’s bleak, dystopian world, drawing attention to the importance of listening and engaging with stories governed and shaped by voices radically different from one’s own. |
