| True History of the Kelly Gang is one of Peter Carey’s best received novels that won him Booker Prize in 2001.Set in a historical background and told by the first person narrator,this fiction unveils a ’true’ tale of a bushranger named Ned Kelly by imagining his life experience under the oppression of colonialism.Different from other versions that portray Kelly as a rebel and outlaw,Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang shows people that he is a national hero fighting against colonial authoritarianism.This dissertation delves into cultural identity from the perspective of postcolonialism and focuses on three key notions,body,ethnicity and nationality,which form an indispensable part of cultural identity and which are well-embedded in the novel.By analyzing rivalry over power,battle of discourse and the ’other’ image,this dissertation hopes to explore cultural identity in the historical novel True History of the Kelly Gang.Body is easily gendered,sexualized and objectified.Peter Carey touches upon gendered norms that prevailed in Australia’s patriarchal society in the 19th century when women were gendered,sexualized and subordinate to men.He further challenges gendered norms by rendering transvestism as a grotesque spectacle,which reveals that masculinity is not the only form of anti-colonialism.In True History of the Kelly Gang,ethnicity is magnified,whose existence is a menace to colonists.The battle between the Kelly gang and authorities reveals their rivalry over both hard power and discursive power.The Kelly gang valiantly fought against colonial officials,but their deprivation of power and denial of access to the very important social media-newspaper,reduced them to the ’other’ which is incapable of speaking the truth.The importance of ethnicity lies in that it’s closely associated with national identity,for it is an indispensable part of Australia in the age of multiculturalism.Carey endeavors to deconstruct colonial history and forge national identity through fiction.He subverts the stereotyped image of Ned Kelly and rewrites a ’true’ story in order to arouse Australians,consciousness of facing up to their convict past,reconstructing national identity and transforming their colony into a culturally confident nation.Doubtlessly,True History of the Kelly Gang is beyond a historic spectrum.Its thematic profundity sets Australians thinking "who we are" and "where we will go",which is of vital significance in contemporary Australian society. |
