235-246
SUBVERTING THE IMPERIAL PERSPECTIVE: A STUDY OF PETER CAREY’S JACK MAGGS
Authors: BhuvanePs.w Bahrui,v La.n Mesawnajrui,l aL D. Mavaidnsjuolna &D aCv i.dLs.o Ln. &Ja Cya .pLr.a Lda. Jayaprada
Number of views: 1051
Carey’s popularity rose with the world canvas with the publication of Jack Maggs. Like the Australian writers Judith
Wright, Hal Porter, Thomas Keneally, and Patrick White, Peter Carey explores the convict past in two of his masterpieces,
viz., Jack Maggs (1997) and True History of the Kelly Gang (2000). Here, an attempt is made to study Jack Maggs which is
published in 1997 in Britain and Australia; and in 1998 in the United States. Like Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)
which subverts Jane Eyre, Carey deliberately subverts Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, the myth of imperialism, the
realist Victorian Master Narratives and the thematic concerns by investigating into the colonial renditions. He addresses
socio-historical, cultural, political and literary issues within the postcolonial context. He expounds the inner conflict of
Maggs, his struggle against his deluded belongingness to England and his later unification with his incognito Australian
roots. The representation of identity as fluid can be determined by the changing historical and social milieus. This paper
probes into the gentle pronouncement of the novelist who, at last, frees Maggs from his past ridden consciousness to his
present enlightenment.