Peter Carey, Illywhacker

Ryan Webb (University of East Anglia)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 9.1.1: Australian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Susan Kossew (Monash University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1985

Places

Australia (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Illywhacker

, Peter Carey’s second published novel, is a work of startling narrative scope and ambition. Like Salman Rushdie’s

Midnight’s Children

, published four years earlier, its approach seems to be heavily influenced by Günter Grass’s

The Tin Drum

in that it distils decades of national history – in Carey’s case, Australian national history – into the life story of a central character and his family. Unlike these other two novels, however,

Illywhacker

is neither specifically political or directly allegorical; its depiction of Australian national identity is often murky, being tied up in a number of ambiguous and self-contradictory leitmotifs woven into the meandering first-person narrative of a self-confessed liar.

The liar in question is one Herbert Badgery, whose

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4823 words

Citation: Webb, Ryan. "Illywhacker". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4539, accessed 02 May 2024.]

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