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Identities and Themes in Oscar and Lucinda From the Post-colonial Perspective
DAI Rui
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DOI:10.17265/1539-8072/2020.11.004
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China
Peter Carey is “one of the most original and talented writers” of New Writing in Australia. Oscar and Lucinda is one of his novels, which sets in 19th century Britain and Australia and tells the bizarre, pure love story between these two persons. However, it is also interspersed with numerous depictions of Christianity, Australian aboriginal culture, and British colonial invasion. Therefore, many critics and even Peter Carey himself see it as an exploration and reflection on colonialism and Australia’s national cultural identity. Aiming at the colonial elements in the novel, this paper will proceed from the post-colonial theory, through the analysis of the hybridity of the protagonist’s identities and the inner themes of the novel, to explore the characters’ confusion about identity under the colonial era, and the cruel colonial reality hidden under the Christian civilization.
Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda, post-colonialism
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