B. Wongar's Literary Work and Life from an Ethnological and Anthropological Perspective

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v15i1.8

Keywords:

B. Wongar, Aborigines, Australia, migrant and dissident literature, anthropology

Abstract

This paper looks at the (auto)biography and literary work of an Australian writer of Serbian descent, B. Wongar/Sreten Božić, viewed from the perspective of ethnology and anthropology. His work is well known to local scholars of literary and cultural studies: for them, Wongar's complex and polysemous oeuvre has long since become a vibrant topic of interpretation and dialogue. An attempt is made here to show how and why this prolific, award-winning and world-renowned author has become a controversial phenomenon in Australian literature. Such a concise retrospective is needed so that readers outside the humanities can gain at least partial insight. The main aim is to highlight those topics in Wongar's fiction and documentary writing that are important from the standpoint of sociocultural anthropology and anthropology of literature: the characteristics of the migrant position and experiences of the dissident writer as a social actor, and the ethnographic-folkloric motivation of the writer's oeuvre.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Altman, Jon C. 1979. "The Question of Affluence: Yolngu Economy in Northeast Arnhem Land". Canberra Anthropology 2 (1): 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/03149097909508633.

Andrić, Dragoslav, prir. 1954. Iz savremene australiske proze. Beograd: Novo pokolenje.

Arsenijević, Jelena. 2011. "Kultura dominacije i pokušaj otpora: slučaj B. Vongara". U Antropologija istine, drugi život i opus primum B. Vongara, uredio Aleksandar Petrović, 93–110. Kragujevac: FILUM i Centar za naučna istraživanja SANU.

Arsenijević Mitrić, Jelena N. 2014. "Putovanje kao potraga za identitetom u romanima Ž.M.G. le Klezioa i B. Vongara: Pustinja i Valg". Etnoantropološki problemi 9 (2): 483–511. https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v9i2.11.

Arsenijević Mitrić, Jelena. 2016a. "Emigrantski diskurs B. Vongara". Liceum 16 (22): 189–209. Kragujevac: Univerzitet u Kragujevcu, Centar za naučna istraživanja SANU.

Arsenijević Mitrić Jelena. 2016b. Terra Amata vs. Terra nullius: diskurs o (post)kolonijalizmu u delima B. Vongara i Ž. M. G. le Klezioa. Kragujevac: FILUM.

Arsenijević Mitrić, Jelena. 2016c. "Figura dinga (canis lupus dingo) u prozi B. Vongara". U Canis lupus između obredne maske i književne životinje, ur. Maja Anđelković i Jelenka Pandurević, 257–283. Kragujevac: FILUM.

Arsenijević Mitrić, Jelena. 2017. "Antropološka misao Nikolaja Nikolajeviča Mikluho-Maklaja i njen uticaj na stvaralaštvo Sretena Božića/B. Vongara". Nasleđe 37: 207–226.

Barjaktarović, Mirko. 1963. "Katedra za etnologiju". U Sto godina Filozofskog fakulteta (1863–1963), uredio Radovan Samardžić, 297–300. Beograd: Narodna knjiga.

Barnard, Alan and Jonathan Spencer, eds. 2002. Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. London ‒ New York: Routledge.

Bartrop, Paul. R. 2012. "Punitive Expeditions and Massacres: Gippsland, Colorado, and the Question of Genocide". In Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History, edited by A. Dirk Moses, loc. 4703‒5155. New York ‒ Oxford: Berghahn Books. Kindle.

Berndt, Ronald M. 1964. "Problems of Assimilation in Australia". International Migration Digest 1, no.1 (Spring): 25–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/019791836400100107.

Berndt, Catherine. 1985. "Mondalmi: One of the Saltwater People". In Fighters and Singers: The Lives of Some Aboriginal Women, edited by Isobel White, Diane Barwick, and Betty Meehan, 19–38. Sydney: George Allen and Unwin. Kindle.

Berndt, Ronald M. and Robert Tonkinson, eds. 1988. Social Anthropology and Australian Aboriginal Studies: A contemporary overview. Canberra, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Berndt, Ronald M. and Catherine H. Berndt. 1999. The World of the First Australians: Aboriginal Traditional Life: Past and Present. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Berndt, Ronald M. [1952] 2006. Djanggawul: An Aboriginal Religious Cult of North-Eastern Arnhem Land. London: Routledge. Kindle.

Blainey, Geoffrey. 1976. Triumph of the Nomads: A History of Aboriginal Australia. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press.

Bogoeva Sedlar, Ljiljana. 2002. "Mapping the Other, Mapping the Self: B. Wongar's Novel Raki (1994)". Facta Universitatis (series Linguistics and Literature) 2 (9): 313–325.

Bogoeva Sedlar, Ljiljana. 2011. "B. Vongar i nobelovci: tekst i kontekst". U Antropologija istine, drugi život i opus primum B. Vongara, uredio Aleksandar Petrović, 65–92. Kragujevac: FILUM i Centar za naučna istraživanja SANU.

Bozic, Sreten in conjunction with Alan Marshall. 1972. Aboriginal Myths. Melbourne: Gold Star Publications.

Broom, Richard. 2010. Aboriginal Australians: A history since 1788. Fully revised fourth edition. Sidney: Allen and Unwin.

Burdije, Pjer. 2003. Pravila umetnosti: geneza i struktura polja književnosti. Novi Sad: Svetovi.

Bužinjska, Ana i Pavel Markovski. 2002. Književne teorije XX veka. Beograd: Službeni glasnik.

Caiter, Tess. 2003. "Censored creativity: B Wongar's original version of Walg". Journal of Australian Studies 27 (77): 117–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443050309387857.

Clifford, James. 1997. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge ‒ London: Harvard University Press.

Clifford, James. 2013. Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge ‒ London: Harvard University Press. Kindle.

Condliffe, Patrick. 2013. "Trough a Wongar, Darkly". Ljudi govore, časopis za književnost i kulturu 19/20, 07. decembar 2013. https://www.ljudigovore.com/issue/people-say-1920/article/through-a-wongar-darkly/.

Cowlishaw, Gillian. 2015. "Friend or foe? Anthropology's encounter with Aborigines". Inside Story, August 19, 2015. https://insidestory.org.au/friend-or-foe-anthropologys-encounter-with-aborigines/.

Cruikshank, Julie. 1990. Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Native Yukon Elders. By Julie Cruikshank in collaboration with Angela Sidney, Kitty Smith, and Annie Ned. Norman: University of Nebraska Press.

Dajmond, Džared. 2004. Mikrobi, puške i čelik: sudbine ljudskih društava. Beograd: Dosije i Službeni list SCG.

Dirkem, Emil. 1982. Elementarni oblici religijskog života: totemistički sistem u Australiji. Beograd: Prosveta.

Drobnjaković, Borivoje M. [1922] 2011. "Jasenica: antropogeografska ispitivanja". U Jasenica: naselja, poreklo stanovništva, običaji, 7–435. Edicija Koreni, knj. 10. Beograd: Službeni glasnik i SANU.

Evans, Raymond. 2012. "'Plenty Shoot 'Em': The Destruction of Aboriginal Societes along the Queensland Frontier". In Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History, edited by Anthony Dirk Moses, loc. 3650‒4228. New York ‒ Oxford: Berghahn Books. Kindle.

Flood, Josephine. 2019. The Original Australians: The Story of the Aboriginal People. 2nd edition. Sidney: Allen and Unwin. Kindle.

Frizell, Helen. 1978a. "Banumbir Wongar? Who is he?". The Sidney Morning Herald, Tuesday, July 18, 1978, 7. https://www.newspapers.com/search/#lnd=1&ymd=1978-07-18&t=3674.

Frizell, Helen. 1978b. "Tracking the mysterious B. Wongar". The Sidney Morning Herald, Monday, August 21, 1978, 7. https://www.newspapers.com/search/#lnd=1&ymd=1978-08-21&t=3674.

Gojković, Andrijana. 1982. "Muzički život australijskih domorodaca". U Domoroci Australije, uredio Petar Vlahović, 87–100. Posebna izdanja EI SANU 24. Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU i Etnografski muzej.

Gunew, Sneja. 1993. "Culture, gender and the autor-function: 'Vongar's' Walg". In Australian Cultural Studies: A Reader, edited by John Frow and Maeghan Morris, 3–14. Urbana ‒ Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Haebich, Anna. 2012. "'Clearing the Wheat Belt': Erasing the Indigenous Presence in the Southwest of Western Australia". In Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History, edited by A. Dirk Moses, loc. 6356‒6867. New York ‒ Oxford: Berghahn Books. Kindle.

Hallam, Sylvia J. [1975] 2014. Fire and Hearth: A Study of Aboriginal usage and European usurpation in south-western Australia. UWA Publishing.

Harari, Juval Noa. 2018. Sapijens: kratka istorija ljudskog roda. Beograd: Biblioner.

Isak, Dženifer. 1982. "Umetnost Aborigina". U Domoroci Australije, uredio Petar Vlahović, 11–19. Posebna izdanja EI SANU 24. Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU i Etnografski muzej.

Isaacs, Jennifer. 2012. "Marika, Wandjuk Djuakan (1927–1987)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/marika-wandjuk-djuakan-14917/text26107.

Jang, Robert Dž. S. 2013. Postkolonijalizam: sasvim kratak uvod. Beograd: Službeni glasnik.

Kampmark, Nataša. 2012. "Prozni pejzaž Australije". U Priče iz bezvremene zemlje: antologija savremene australijske proze, priredili Majkl Vajlding i Nataša Kampmark, 9–35. Zrenjanin: Agora.

Keen, Ian. 1988. "Twenty-five years of Aboriginal kinship studies". In Social Anthropology and Australian Aboriginal Studies: A Contemporary Overview, edited by Ronald M. Berndt and Robert Tonkinson, 77–123. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Keneally, Tom. 1978. "The Soul Of Things". The New York Times, June 25, 1978. https://www.nytimes.com/1978/06/25/archives/the-soul-of-things.html.

Kizilos, Kathy. 1985. "Shadowy literary figure". The Age (Melbourne), Saturday, February 23, 1985, Saturday Extra, 9. https://www.newspapers.com/search/#lnd=1&ymd=1985-02-23&t=3673.

Knežević, Srebrica. 1989. "Izumrli narodi: depopulacija Tasmanaca i sudelovanje antropologa". U Spomenica Svetozara Radojčića, 231–248. Zbornik Filozofskog fakulteta XVI, serija A: Istorijske nauke. Beograd: Beogradski univerzitet.

Larkin, John. 1978. "The mysterious Wongar: Fame for an Aborigine but who is he?". The Age (Melbourne), Friday, July 21, 1978, 9. https://www.newspapers.com/search/#lnd=1&ymd=1978-07-21&t=3673.

Layton, Robert. 1996. "Aboriginal Australia". In Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology, edited by Alan Barnard and Jonathan Spencer, 1–7. London ‒ New York: Routledge.

Lebedev, Sergej. 2019. Granica zaborava. Zagreb: Fraktura.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1969. The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Boston: Beacon Press.

Manne, Robert. 2012. "Aboriginal Child Removal and the Question of Genocide, 1900‒1940". In Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History, edited by A. Dirk Moses, loc. 5173‒5794. New York ‒ Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Marjanović-Dušanić, Smilja. 1989. "Vladar kao ratnik: prilog izučavanju nemanjićke ideologije". U Spomenica Svetozara Radojčića, 125–146. Zbornik Filozofskog fakulteta XVI, serija A: Istorijske nauke. Beograd: Beogradski univerzitet.

Matthews, David. 2006. "B. Wongar (Sreten Bozic) (1932– )". Directory Literary Biography 325: 364–368. http://www.wongar.com/sites/default/files/pages/DLBB.pdf.

Meehan, Betty. 1977. "Hunters by the Seashore". Journal of Human Evolution 6 (4): 363‒370. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2484(77)80005-5.

Meyer, Therese-Marie. 2006. Where Fiction Ends: Four Scandals of Literary Identity Construction. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann.

Milojković-Đurić, Jelena. 2011. "Sreten Božić Vongar ‒ pesnik opomene". U Antropologija istine, drugi život i opus primum B. Vongara, uredio Aleksandar Petrović, 127‒138. Kragujevac: FILUM i Centar za naučna istraživanja SANU.

Morgan, Luis H. 1981. Drevno društvo: istraživanja čovekovog razvoja od divljaštva i varvarstva do civilizacije. Beograd: Prosveta.

Morphy, Howard. 1988. "The resurrection of the Hydra: Twenty-five years of research of Aboriginal religion". In Social Anthropology and Australian Aboriginal Studies: A Contemporary Overview, edited by Ronald M. Berndt and Robert Tonkinson, 239–266. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Moses Dirk, Anthony, ed. 2012a. Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History. New York ‒ Oxford: Berghahn Books. Kindle.

Moses Dirk, Anthony. 2012b. "Genocide and Settler Society in Australian History". In Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History, loc. 195‒1333.

Nolan, Maggie. 1998. "The Absent Aborigine". Antipodes 12, no. 1 (June): 7–13.

Palavestra, Predrag. 2011. "Vongar, glasnik iz drugog sveta". U Antropologija istine, drugi život i opus primum B. Vongara, uredio Aleksandar Petrović, 15–25. Kragujevac: FILUM i Centar za naučna istraživanja SANU.

Petrović, Aleksandar. 2010. "Povratak Srećnog Božića" (Reč priređivača). U B. Vongar, Dingovo leglo, 308–314. Beograd: Jasen.

Petrović, Aleksandar, ur. 2011a. Antropologija istine, drugi život i opus primum B. Vongara. Kragujevac: FILUM i Centar za naučna istraživanja SANU.

Petrović, Aleksandar. 2011b. "Veliki san i antropologija istine B. Vongara". U Antropologija istine, drugi život i opus primum B. Vongara, 27–48.

Petrović, Aleksandar. 2011c. "Živi roman u Andrićevom ključu". U B. Vongar, Raki, 274–283. Beograd: Jasen.

Petrović, Aleksandar. 2016. "Moć ponovnih rođenja". U B. Vongar, Hajka na čoveka, Diđeridu šaman, 269–275. Beograd: Jasen.

Poirier, Agnès. 2019. "Moderna vremena". Peščanik.net, 29. 05. 2019. https://pescanik.net/moderna-vremena/?fbclid=IwAR3ZQOWL0sHtqQh4TRWvWIwh5RvN5-rj6zJBzyHg1-hAH2oiOcZGyF2NZpU.

Povinelli, Elizabeth A. 2002. The Cunning of Recognition: Indigenous Alterities and the Making of Australian Multiculturalism. Durham: Duke University Press.

Pratt, Mary Louise. 1986. "Fieldwork in Common Places". In Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, edited by James Clifford and George E. Marcus, 27–50. Berkeley ‒ Los Angeles ‒ London: University of California Press.

Read, Peter. 2006. The Stolen Generations: The removal of Aboriginal children in New South Wales 1883 to 1969. New South Wales Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Fourth reprint.

Reynolds, Henry. 2003. North of Capricorn. Allen and Unwin. Kindle.

Reynolds, Henry. 2012. "Genocide in Tasmania?". In Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History, edited by Anthony Dirk Moses, loc. 3145‒3634. New York ‒ Oxford: Berghahn Books. Kindle.

Ristić, Ratomir. 2004. "Mitsko putovanje kroz istoriju i politiku Sretena Božića – Vongara". U B. Vongar, Cvet u pustinji, 155–165. Niš: Prosveta.

Ross, Robert L. 1990. "The Track to Armageddon in B Wongar's Nuclear Trilogy". World Literature Today 64 (1): 34–38. DOI: 10.2307/40145790.

Salins, Maršal. 2002. Prvobitno društvo blagostanja: esej o ekonomiji lovaca-sakupljača (1968/1972). Anarhija/blok 45.

Schrire, Carmel. 1980. "An Analysis of Human Behaviour and Animal Extinctions in South Africa and Australia in Late Pleistocene Times". South African Archaeological Bulletin 35 (131) (June): 3–12. DOI: 10.2307/3888717.

Schwartz, Larry. 2006. "The Cold War Spy, the photographer, and hidden history from a big land". The Age (Melbourne), Saturday, November 11, 2006, 15. https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-cold-war-spy-the-photographer-and-hidden-history-from-a-big-land-20061111-ge3jnl.html.

Sharrad, Paul. 1982. "Does Wongar Matter?". Kunapipi 4 (1): 37–50. https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol4/iss1/6/.

Smith, Bradley and Peter Savolainen. 2015. "The origin and ancestry of dingo". In The Dingo Debate: Origins, Behaviour, and Conservation, edited by Bradley Smith, 55–80. SCIRO Publishing.

Spencer, Baldwin. 1914. Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia. Melbourne. Kindle.

Spencer, Baldwin, Sir and Francis James Gillen. [1899] 2003. The Native Tribes of Central Australia. Sidney: University of Sidney Library. A digital text.

Spooner, Brian. 1977. "Review of Geoffrey Blainey's Triumph of the Nomads: A History of Aboriginal Australia". Anthropological Quarterly 50 (4): 218–219. DOI: 10.2307/3317763.

Stratigos Vilson, Suzan. 1982. "Osvrt na istorijsku prošlost Australije i njeno naseljavanje". U Domoroci Australije, uredio Petar Vlahović, 63–74. Posebna izdanja EI SANU 24. Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU i Etnografski muzej u Beogradu.

Tonkinson, Robert. 2007. "Berndt, Ronald Murray (1916–1990)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/berndt-ronald-murray-12202/text21879.

Umetnost aborigina severne Australije: slikarstvo, rezbarstvo, rukotvorine. 1981. Katalog izložbe. Etnografski muzej u Beogradu i Etnografski muzej u Zagrebu.

Vasović, Milorad. 1982. "Australija, kontinent-država". U Domoroci Australije, uredio Petar Vlahović, 27–36. Posebna izdanja EI SANU 24. Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU i Etnografski muzej u Beogradu.

Vermeulen, Han F. 2010. "Anthropology in Netherlands: Past, Present, and Future". In Other People's Anthropologies: Ethnographic Practice on the Margins, edited by Aleksandar Bošković, 44–69. New York ‒ Oxford: Berghahn Books.

Vlahović, Petar, ur. 1982. Domoroci Australije. Posebna izdanja EI SANU 24. Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU i Etnografski muzej u Beogradu.

Vongar, B. 1983. Put za Bralgu, Babaru. Beograd: Narodna knjiga.

Vongar, B. 2004. Cvet u pustinji. Niš: Prosveta.

Vongar, B. 2010. Dingovo leglo. Beograd: Jasen.

Vongar, B. 2011. Raki. Beograd: Jasen.

Vongar, B. 2012. Valg. Beograd: Jasen.

Vongar, B. 2016a. Aboridžinski mitovi, Totem i ruda. Beograd: Jasen.

Vongar, B. 2016b. Hajka na čoveka, Diđeridu šaman. Beograd: Jasen.

Vučinić, Vesna. 1995. "Antropologija u divljim naseljima: pogled na Staro sajmište u Beogradu". Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU XLIV: 168–184.

Warner, William Lloyd. 1964. A Black Civilization: A Study of an Australian Tribe. New York: Harper and Raw. Revised edition.

Watson Lukin, Pamela. 2012. "Passed Away?: The Fate of the Karuwali". In Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History, edited by Anthony Dirk Moses, loc. 4234‒4699. New York ‒ Oxford: Berghahn Books. Kindle.

White, Isobel, Diane Barwick, and Betty Meehan, eds. 1985. Fighters and Singers: The Lives of Some Aboriginal Women. Sydney ‒ London ‒ Boston: George Allen and Unwin. Kindle.

Willbanks, Ray. 1991. "B. Wongar". In Australian Voices: Writers and Their Work, 201–214. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Wositzky, Jan. 2001. "Dingoes, Names and B. Wongar". December 13, 2001 https://web.archive.org/web/20090504072933/http://www.abc.net.au/arts/books/stories/s440019.htm.

Živković, Milica. 2011a. "Umetničko delo B. Vongara kao odgovor na politiku zaborava". U Antropologija istine, drugi život i opus primum B. Vongara, uredio Aleksandar Petrović, 49–64. Kragujevac: FILUM i Centar za naučna istraživanja SANU.

Živković, Milica. 2011b. "Does B. Wongar write as a migrant writer?". Reči, časopis za jezik, kniževnost i kulturološke studije 4 (3): 93–103.

Downloads

Published

2020-04-09

How to Cite

Gorunović , Gordana. 2020. “B. Wongar’s Literary Work and Life from an Ethnological and Anthropological Perspective”. Etnoantropološki Problemi Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology 15 (1):199-238. https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v15i1.8.

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>