Bruce Chatwin's Songlines

Bruce Chatwin’s Songlines, a story depicting a Russian mapping ancient Aboriginal Songlines, is ostensibly a book in the travel writing genre, yet it contains many autobiographical features as well as the central thesis of Chatwin’s view of human existence. This leaves the true purpose of the book somewhat a mystery and creates a fascinating allegory. Leaving us with the question ‘is it fact or is it fiction?’

Chatwin uses language in order to mask his text as a piece of travel writing. As a travel writer, Chatwin has an excellent evocation of place and uses descriptive language well. “The milky blue rollers flopped ashore, and there were flights of terns, skimming low over the bay, piercing the sound of the surf with thin metallic cries. There was no wind.” Pg 73 This creates strong, detailed pictures which give the reader a sense of having experienced the situation.

Chatwin’s tendency towards short, sharp sentences presents a factual account. “His name w

Although the book is superficially a travel book, it includes many aspects that create an autobiographical feel. The way that the narrator, Bruce, travels through the Australian outback, as Chatwin himself did with Rushdie, presents a factual self-reflective account of his travels. The many similarities between Bruce the character, and the author Chatwin, leave the reader in some doubt as to the true nature of this character. They share the same name, a simple yet vital factor. ‘Bruce’ uses the same leather bound notebook as Chatwin himself. The many memories inserted, of family and travels, all come from Chatwin’s extensive experience. The notebook section in the middle of the book are Chatwin’s own collection of notes from his various travels. “Madame Dieterlen, an old African hand, gave me coffee in her caravan on the edge of the Dogon cliff. I asked her what traces the Bororo Peul – cattle herders of the Sahel – would leave for an archaeologist once they had moved off a campsite.” Pg. 206 These notes reinforce the notion that the book is autobiographical, coupled with the name dropping provides proof of the author’s experience.

The structure of Songlines is all important in the interpretation of the text. Chatwin jumps from topic to topic as well as backwards and forwards in time. The way Chatwin writes the book, with fleeting ideas and stories within stories seems to produce a text similar to Aboriginal belief. “And suddenly it was as though we could see the row on row of honey-ants, their bodies striped and gleaming, bursting with nectar in their cells beneath the roots of the roots of the mulga tree.” With this roaming storyline it reflects the dreaming’s of Aboriginal culture and how the Ancestors meandered across the country, interacting with each other. Thus the book’s struc

Some topics in this essay:
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