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Peter Philip Carey

ピーター・フィリップ・ケアリー

Peter Philip Carey

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1943-05-07 （Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia）
Nationality
Australian
Languages
English

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Creative writing teacher
Active Years
1974-
Affiliations
Hunter College (City University of New York), New York University (as faculty), McSpedden Carey Advertising Consultants (co-founder)
Memberships
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Influenced By
Samuel Beckett, William Faulkner, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Gabriel García Márquez
Nominations
Best of the Booker (nominated), Booker Prize (shortlisted/longlisted for multiple works)

Education

Geelong Grammar School
Period: 1954–1960
Year of Graduation: 1960
Country: Australia
Secondary education
Monash University
Faculty of Science / Chemistry and Zoology (majors)
Period: 1961–（中途退学）
Country: Australia
Left early due to a car accident and loss of interest

Awards

Booker Prize
1988
Work: Oscar and Lucinda
Organization: Man Booker (now Booker Prize)
Result: winner
Booker Prize
2001
Work: True History of the Kelly Gang
Organization: Man Booker (now Booker Prize)
Result: winner
Miles Franklin Award
1981
Work: Bliss
Organization: Miles Franklin Award
Result: winner
Miles Franklin Award
1989
Work: Oscar and Lucinda
Organization: Miles Franklin Award
Result: winner
Miles Franklin Award
1998
Work: Jack Maggs
Organization: Miles Franklin Award
Result: winner
Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
2012
Organization: Government of Australia
Result: honor
Commonwealth Writers Prize
1998
Work: Jack Maggs
Organization: Commonwealth Foundation
Result: winner
Commonwealth Writers Prize
2001
Work: True History of the Kelly Gang
Organization: Commonwealth Foundation
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Bliss

1981 Novel

A darkly comic novel about a middle-aged Australian man who suddenly perceives the world in a radically different way.

social satireidentityillusion vs reality

Illywhacker

1985 Novel

A picaresque novel centered on a confidence trickster, blending memory and fabrication.

memorystorytellingdeception

Oscar and Lucinda

1988 Historical novel / Romance

Set in the 19th century, it follows an unlikely friendship and fate of two characters connected by a wager. Winner of the Booker Prize.

religion and faithgambling and fatecolonial society
Adaptations
  • [Film] Oscar and Lucinda (film) / Gillian Armstrong (1997)

Jack Maggs

1997 Reimagined historical fiction

A reimagining of a Dickensian minor character from David Copperfield; a story of revenge and memory set in 19th-century London.

memory and selflegacy of colonialismrevenge

True History of the Kelly Gang

2000 Historical novel / Biographical fiction

A novel that recounts the life of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly in the first person; winner of the Booker Prize.

empire and rebellionheroism and criminalityrewriting history
Adaptations
  • [Film] True History of the Kelly Gang (film) / Justin Kurzel (2019)

Bibliography

  • Bliss (1981)
  • Illywhacker (1985)
  • Oscar and Lucinda (1988)
  • The Tax Inspector (1991)
  • The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith (1994)
  • Jack Maggs (1997)
  • True History of the Kelly Gang (2000)
  • My Life as a Fake (2003)
  • Theft: A Love Story (2006)
  • His Illegal Self (2008)
  • Parrot and Olivier in America (2010)
  • The Chemistry of Tears (2012)
  • Amnesia (2014)
  • A Long Way From Home (2017)

Adaptations

  • Oscar and Lucinda (film, 1997)
  • True History of the Kelly Gang (film, 2019)
  • Dead End Drive-In (1986, adapted from the short story 'Crabs')

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Narrative-driven prose with varied narratorsMetafictional techniquesElements of magical realism at times
Recurring Motifs
Australian history and identitymemory and fabricationoutsiders and trickster figures

Legacy

Peter Carey is one of Australia's leading contemporary novelists and one of the few authors to have won the Booker Prize twice. He is widely acclaimed internationally and known for novels that engage with Australian history and identity.

Academic Societies

  • Royal Society of Literature
  • Australian Academy of the Humanities
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • American Academy of Arts and Letters

Archives

  • Fryer Library, University of Queensland (holds Peter Carey Papers)
  • National Library of Australia (holds related materials)

In Popular Culture

  • Featured on an 'Australian Legends' postage stamp series in 2010

Quotes

  • I was living in Bellingen. The little church was down the road, and they wanted to take it away. I thought about that landscape and I thought — only 200 years ago this was a landscape that was full of Aboriginal stories. I wanted it to arrive intact, whole. I thought it would come on a barge.
    Source: Interview quoted in Patrick Fuery (ed.), Representation, Discourse and Desire (1994) (1994)

Trivia

  • One of the few writers to win the Booker Prize twice (1988, 2001).
  • Has won the Miles Franklin Award three times.
  • Appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2012.
  • Featured on an Australian postage stamp series in 2010.