AustLit

'The purchase of the documents relating to True History of the Kelly Gang (2000) by the State Library of Victoria amounts to a significant moment in his career. This collection, catalogued as “The Papers and Drafts of Peter Carey,” marks the convergence of canonicity, the literary market, and the materiality of the cultural artefact. This archive adds a new facet to Carey’s image as an Australian author in the public domain, creating a sense of the continuous relevance of Carey’s work to the canon of Australian literature. I demonstrate how the archive is built via the collective recognition of the economic and cultural capital of Carey’s manuscripts and paraphernalia. Through the case study of an agent in constructing the archive, I investigate the stakes invested in Carey’s ongoing dominant position in the Australian literary field into the twenty-first century. This chapter also examines the ways in which agents augment their volume of literary and economic capital through engaging with what I call Carey’s “archival capital.”' (Publication abstract)