| Peter Carey (1943-) is a prestigious Australian novelist, the only writer to havewon the Booker Prize three times to date and is often considered as the next contenderfor the Noble Prize. His works are usually brimmed with strong national ethnicawareness and historicity, meanwhile, concerns about the living imprisonment of peoplein the contemporary society. His tenth novel His Illegal Self published in2008demonstrates a group of people who were confronted with identity crisis in the60s-70sof last century. The novel successfully portrays three “marginalized†protagonists, Che,Dial and Trevor, as well as their painful pursuit for “legal identity†in the social crevice.With the publishing of His Illegal Self in2008, the novel has received both criticaland favorable comments, but most of which are positive ones. Like Peter Carey’s otherworks, the eccentric narrative style and gorgeous language manifested in the novelmake it eye-catching. This dissertation analyzes the identity issue reflected in the novelfrom the perspectives of group identity, political and cultural identity under the categoryof social psychology, cultural study and post-colonialism. Through the difficulty ofAustralian identity construction as well as the identity loss, pursuit and formation of theprotagonists, Peter Carey expresses his outlook on ideal society as well as hisdeliberation on the violent democratic revolution in America, which displays his senseof social responsibility and artistic conscience.This dissertation consists of five parts. Chapter one firstly makes a briefintroduction to Peter Carey’s life as well as his literal achievements, then introduces theplot of His Illegal Self and the reviews of the novel both at home and abroad, lastlyintroduces the literary theory employed in the dissertation. Some basic conceptsconcerning identity theory are introduced from the fields of philosophy, sociology,cultural study and literature. Chapter two firstly analyzes the impact of the special eraon individuals’ fates, then deals with the identity crisis faced by Australia as a nation.Chapter three analyzes the identity loss of the three protagonists as well as the identitycrisis confronted by the relevant characters appearing in this novel to further expose thesocial corruptions in capitalist societies. Chapter four mainly discusses the identity formation of the three protagonists under the circumstance of the powerful society andPeter Carey’s view on ideal society. Chapter five is the conclusion of the dissertation.By applying identity theory to analyzing the book, Peter Carey claims his writingintention, his life-long mission of constructing Australian cultural identity as well as hisworrying to the whole mankind’s future. |
