English Heritage and Australian Culture: The Church and Literature of England in Oscar and Lucinda
Abstract
My argument is in three parts: first, about how Oscar and Lucinda seems to be signalling the need for a move away from the Church and literature of England because they were used in Victorian times as instruments of oppression; second that that's what in a sense they were for: that there was no coherent body of Englishness in either established Church or literature before they were constructed as institutions with the empire in mind; third, that the critique of imperialism within Oscar and Lucinda is actually based on ideologies from within Western culture, elements that had been suppressed when English institutions were constructed as servants in the cause of empire.
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Published 1 October 1995 in Volume 17 No. 2. Subjects: Anglicanism, Australian culture, Australian identity, Australian literature - International influences, Australian literature and writers, Colonialism & imperialism, English culture, English literature & writers, Peter Carey.
Cite as: Brown, Ruth. ‘English Heritage and Australian Culture: The Church and Literature of England in Oscar and Lucinda.’ Australian Literary Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, 1995, doi: 10.20314/als.03e31ee5a6.