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'It is one of the most characteristic traits of those of Peter Carey's fictions that are set in a postcolonial context that Australia remains essentially colonial. It is as if the British, by burrowing under and tunnelling out (as featured in Illywhacker), had, metaphorically speaking, destabilized the country and this made it vulnerable to future generations of colonizers. While the British continue to be a force to reckon with in Carey's fictional version of postcolonial Australia, the United States have notably taken over political and cultural stewardship over the country. The detrimental effects the American influence has on the consciousness of the characters in Carey's novels suggest that this new form of cultural and political patronage is not dissimilar to that of the British in former times. In fact, nothing much seems to have changed when the job of protector in chief was reallocated from the British to the Americans in the middle of the twentieth century. Australians in Peter Carey's postcolonial Australia continue to be inhibited by an acute sense of cultural backwardness and political and military dependence.' (p. 194)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
- Illywhacker 1985 single work novel
- The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith 1994 single work novel
