Issue Details: First known date: 2005... 2005 Simulation, Resistance and Transformation : The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Discusses the novel's treatment of postcolonial issues in Australian culture. 'Ashcroft focuses on the postcolonial struggle over representation as it is played out in the novel and presents a reading in Baudrillardian terms, looking at the novel's "consuming cultural thesis [...] that all culture, identity, and the power relationships they invoke are a product of simulation"' (Introduction to Fabulating Beauty xxxi-xxxii).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Fabulating Beauty : Perspectives on the Fiction of Peter Carey Andreas Gaile (editor), Amsterdam New York (City) : Rodopi , 2005 Z1228080 2005 anthology criticism

    'Peter Carey is one of Australia’s finest creative writers, much admired by both literary critics and a worldwide reading public. While academia has been quick to see his fictions as exemplars of postcolonial and postmodern writing strategies, his general readership has been captivated by his deadpan sense of humour, his quirky characters, the outlandish settings and the grotesqueries of his intricate plots. After three decades of prolific writing and multiple award-winning, Carey stands out in the world of Australian letters as designated heir to Patrick White. Fabulating Beauty pays tribute to Carey’s literary achievement. It brings together the voices of many of the most renowned Carey critics in twenty essays(sixteen commissioned especially for this volume), an interview with the author, as well as the most extensive bibliography of Carey criticism to date. The studies represent a wide range of current perspectives on the writer’s fictions. Contributors focus on issues as diverse as the writer’s biography; his use of architectural metaphors; his interrogation of narrative structures such as myths and cultural master-plots; intertextual strategies; concepts of sacredness and references to the Christian tradition; and his strategies of rewriting history. Amidst predictions of the imminent death of ‘postist’ theory, the essays all attest to the ongoing relevance of the critical parameters framed by postmodernism and postcolonialism.'   (Publication summary)

    Amsterdam New York (City) : Rodopi , 2005
    pg. 199-214

Works about this Work

Australian Literature and Alternative Modernities Bill Ashcroft , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Change - Conflict and Convergence : Austral-Asian Scenarios 2010; (p. 80-93)
Bill Ashcroft explores the 'somewhat outrageous idea of Australia as an alternative modernity'. He states: 'This appears absurd on the face of it because Australia is a westernised, developed nation. It appears even more absurd as we emerge out of eleven years of slavish adherence to American unilateralism. Therefore, I realise that I am walking on very thin ice here. However, the habit has been to think of alternative modernities as alternative to the West...' (p. 81)
Reading Post-Colonial Australia Bill Ashcroft , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Issues in Australian Literature 2010; (p. 15-37)
Reading Post-Colonial Australia Bill Ashcroft , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Postcolonial Issues in Australian Literature 2010; (p. 15-37)
Australian Literature and Alternative Modernities Bill Ashcroft , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Change - Conflict and Convergence : Austral-Asian Scenarios 2010; (p. 80-93)
Bill Ashcroft explores the 'somewhat outrageous idea of Australia as an alternative modernity'. He states: 'This appears absurd on the face of it because Australia is a westernised, developed nation. It appears even more absurd as we emerge out of eleven years of slavish adherence to American unilateralism. Therefore, I realise that I am walking on very thin ice here. However, the habit has been to think of alternative modernities as alternative to the West...' (p. 81)
Last amended 6 Dec 2005 17:34:43
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