Theory of play and affect in Malouf's An Imaginary Life

David Malouf's An Imaginary Life has usually been read as a reflection on language, silence and the Australian landscape. This paper argues that the novel's central transformative mechanism is not language but play—the repeated, non-linguistic, bodily practices of throwing, catching, imitating, and hunting through which Ovid and the wild child enter into relation. The paper shows how play functions as an affective theory that brings people together without words, focusing on Brian Massumi's theory of affect, how feelings can move humans before they even think about them, and Sara Ahmed's view of emotions as a social and cultural practice. Ovid, the villagers and the child find moments through shared actions where the lines between self and other, culture and nature, fade away. The paper acknowledges the limits of applying twenty-first-century affect theory to a 1978 novel and argues that Malouf's celebration of play deliberately departs from the Australian bush myth of suffering and loss.