The Archive and the Canon single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 The Archive and the Canon
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Peter Carey : The Making of a Global Novelist Keyvan Allahyari , Cham : Palgrave Macmillan , 2023 26408788 2023 multi chapter work criticism biography

    'Peter Carey: The Making of a Global Novelist recounts Peter Carey's literary career from his emergence in the Australian literary scene as a contributor to local literary magazines to when he published his fiction exclusively with large conglomerate publishers. As Australia's most decorated author for a period nearing half a century, Carey's career gives unparalleled insights into the global contemporary publishing and the making of global literary prestige from the periphery, and significant cultural currency for Australian literature and culture worldwide. Carey's fiction is not only a product of the global dynamic in literary publishing of the last quarter of the twentieth century, but also it holds something of its productive tension for Australian writing and writers. Allahyari retraces the fraught synthesis of an individual literary proclivity with a growing commercial cultural appetite: the coincidence of Carey's career with the conglomeration of global publishing pushed further towards anti-elitist, popular aesthetics.'  (Publication summary)

    Cham : Palgrave Macmillan , 2023
    pg. 107-132
Last amended 21 Jun 2023 09:17:09
107-132 The Archive and the Canonsmall AustLit logo
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