Dream paths (novel)

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Traumpfade (Originally The Songlines ) is the best-known novel by the British Bruce Chatwin (1940-1989). The novel was published in 1987.

content

The novel Traumpfade is partly autobiographical and describes the journey of the protagonist "Bruce" through the interior of Australia . During this trip he met the Russian immigrant Arkady Wolschok. A close friendship with men emerges from this encounter. Wolschok, who as a dropout has renounced the goals of civilized society, is fighting against the displacement and the extinction of the culture of the Australian indigenous people, the Aborigines .

The central theme is the songlines of the Aborigines, an invisible, mythical map of Australia, which is passed on from generation to generation by song and is the basis of the migrations ( walkabouts ) of the indigenous population. The founding Aboriginal myths about the dreamtime are thus a detailed description of the land; they are learned and preserved by the Aborigines in the form of songs, so that each Aboriginal clan carries with them a detailed map of the country and its myths in the traditional songs. This map is being changed by today's civilization through construction measures, so that the cultural roots of the indigenous population are destroyed and lost.

The last third of the novel consists almost entirely of short notes, quotes and observations that the first-person narrator Bruce has collected during his travels around the world. In these Chatwin pushes his thesis on nomadism and the origins of humanity: man, he is convinced, was born to a nomadic way of life; Wars and excessive violence in communities only arise where people become sedentary and develop property claims.

background

  • Chatwin made two trips to the interior of Australia in 1983 and 1984, which serve as the basis of the novel, which is in fact a "modified reportage". He spent three days with Toly Sawenko, who is portrayed in the book as Arkady Wolschok.
  • Bruce Chatwin had long planned a book on nomads with the working title The Nomadic Alternative . Chatwin initially planned a book in letter form with the subtitle Letters from Marble Bar and later a "Discourse" with six excursion reports in Platonic dialogues with a semi-fictional "Sergei" before he decided on the published form.
  • Chatwin varied the book in translations: The German and French editions lack the description of Arkady's wedding and his girlfriend. On the other hand, in the last third of the German edition, he addresses a letter to the English edition.

reception

Traumpfade is the best-known and most widely circulated novel by the Brit Chatwin and is in many ways considered a masterful travel book for inner Australia. At the same time, the novel was heavily criticized because Chatwin relied on the controversial theories of Theodor Strehlow . Among other things, it was criticized that he did not speak directly to Aborigines. In addition, he left his traveling companions in the dark about his intention to write a novel that describes them recognizably and in part exposing them. Only the protagonist Bruce (i.e. Chatwin himself) appears clearly embellished in his actions.

First editions

Footnotes

  1. ↑ On the connection between the narrative character Arkady and Salman Rushdie cf. Rushdie, Salman. "Traveling with Chatwin". In: Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary homelands. Essays and Criticism 1981-1991. London: Granta Books, 1991, ISBN 0-670-83952-3 .
  2. ↑ Nicholas Shakespeare : Bruce Chatwin - A Biography. Kindler, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-463-40389-7 , p. 619.
  3. ↑ Nicholas Shakespeare : Bruce Chatwin - A Biography. Kindler, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-463-40389-7 , p. 614.
  4. ↑ Nicholas Shakespeare : Bruce Chatwin - A Biography. Kindler, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-463-40389-7 , p. 650.
  5. ↑ Nicholas Shakespeare : Bruce Chatwin - A Biography. Kindler, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-463-40389-7 , p. 613.
  6. ↑ Nicholas Shakespeare : Bruce Chatwin - A Biography. Kindler, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-463-40389-7 , p. 607.
  7. ↑ Nicholas Shakespeare : Bruce Chatwin - A Biography. Kindler, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-463-40389-7 , p. 611.
  8. ↑ Nicholas Shakespeare : Bruce Chatwin - A Biography. Kindler, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-463-40389-7 , p. 620.

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