AMERICA IS A DEMOCRACY, WHEREAS AUSTRALIA STAYED A BUREAUCRACY

Authors

  • Claudia NOVOSIVSCHEI Faculty of Letters of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Contact address: <claudia.novosivschei@gmail.com>.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbphilo.2017.1.07

Keywords:

Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America, Europe, France, French Revolution, America, Australia, political systems, democracy, bureaucracy, penal colony, Alexis de Tocqueville, narrative voices.

Abstract

America Is a Democracy, whereas Australia Stayed a Bureaucracy. Peter Carey is one of those authors who, through almost their entire body of fictional works, deal with politics, search for the political, examine how it permeates all layers of one’s life, irrespective whether one is better or lower positioned in society. The more so this happens in Parrot and Olivier in America (2009), a novel in which his two main characters swing between the Old and the New Worlds, between political systems in the making. The twenty-first century reader is thus forced to question what has been made and what they are currently living in.

REZUMAT. America a devenit o democrație, iar Australia a rămas o birocrație. Peter Carey este unul din acei autori care, aproape în întreg corpusul său de lucrări ficționale abordează politica, caută politicul, analizează cum acesta pătrunde toate straturile vieții individului, indiferent dacă acesta este plasat mai bine sau mai jos în societate. Cu atât mai mult acest lucru se întâmplă în Parrot și Olivier în America (2009), roman în care cele două personaje principale se perindă între Lumea Veche și Lumile Noi, între sisteme politice în construcție. Cititorul contemporan este astfel forțat să se întrebe ce s-a construit și în ce lume trăiește.

Cuvinte cheie: Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America, Europa, Franța, Revoluția franceză America, Australia, sisteme politice, democrație, birocrație, colonie penitenciară, Alexis de Tocqueville, voci narative.

Author Biography

Claudia NOVOSIVSCHEI, Faculty of Letters of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Contact address: <claudia.novosivschei@gmail.com>.

Claudia Novosivschei has been a PhD student at the Faculty of Letters of Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania since 2013. Her PhD project focuses on Australian literature, more precisely the fiction of David Malouf and Peter Carey. Member of EACLALS and EASA since 2013, Claudia Novosivschei participated in several international conferences: EACLALS (Innsbruck, 2014), Postcolonial Narrations (Frankfurt, 2014), EASA (Prato, 2014); British and American Studies Conference (Timisoara, 2015). In 2015 she benefited from an Erasmus research mobility at the University of Kent, UK. Her academic interests are postcolonial studies, American literature, Victorian literature. Contact address: <claudia.novosivschei@gmail.com>.

References

Books

Carey, Peter. Parrot and Olivier in America. 2009. Faber and Faber Limited paperback edition, 2011.

Byatt, Antonia S. On Histories and Stories. Selected Essays. Harvard University Press, 2000. PDF file.

Woodcock, Bruce. Peter Carey. Contemporary World Writers. University Press, 2003. Print.

Gaile, Andreas. “‘The “contrarian streak’: An Interview with Peter Carey.” Fabulating Beauty: Perspectives on the Fiction of Peter Carey. Edited by Andreas Gaile, Rodopi, 2005, pp. 3-16. Print.

Articles

Barsanti, Chris. “Parrot and Olivier in America, by Peter Carey.” Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 86, no. 3, Summer 2010, pp. 193-193. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 20 Dec. 2016.

Bliss, Carolyn. “Peter Carey. Parrot and Olivier in America.” World Literature in Review. July-Aug. 2010, pp. 58-60. Academic Search Complete. Web. Accessed 20 Dec. 2016.

Carey, Peter. “PETER CAREY in conversation with Edmund White and Claire Messud.” LIVE from the NYPL, 20 Apr. 2010, https://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/peter-carey-conversation-edmund-white-and-claire-messud. Accessed 20 Dec. 2016.

Domestico, Anthony. “On the Road.” Commonwealth, vol. 137, issue 9, 7 May 2010, pp. 36-37. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 20 Dec. 2016.

Luck, Geoffrey. “Peter Carey’s Bootleg Tocqueville.” Quadrant Magazine, vol. 54, issue 11, Nov 2010, pp.17-23. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 20 Dec. 2016.

Robson, Leo. “Baggy wowsers. Parrot and Olivier in America. Peter Carey.” New Statesman, vol. 139, issue 4989, 22 Feb. 2010, pp. 47-48. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 20 Dec 2016.

Seaman, Donna. “Parrot and Olivier in America. By Peter Carey.” Booklist, vol. 139, issue 4989, 1 Nov. 2009, pp. 47-48. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 20 Dec 2016.

Wood, James. “Tocqueville in America.” New Yorker, vol. 86, issue 13, 17 May 2010, pp.104-109. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 20 Dec 2016.

Wood, Michael. “The Victorious Servant.” New York Review of Books, vol. 57, issue 12, 15 July 2010, pp.38-39. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 20 Dec 2016.

Zipp, Yvonne. “Parrot and Olivier in America.” Christian Science Monitor, 08827729, 12 May 2010. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 20 Dec 2016.

Websites

Peter Carey official website. petercareybooks.com. Accessed 20 Dec 2016.

Downloads

Published

2017-03-24

How to Cite

NOVOSIVSCHEI, C. (2017). AMERICA IS A DEMOCRACY, WHEREAS AUSTRALIA STAYED A BUREAUCRACY. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Philologia, 62(1), 101–110. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbphilo.2017.1.07

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Articles