The Past as a Partitura: Peter Carey’s Historical Novels

In a literary text, repetition of previous motifs may constitute the poetics of a text, shape its themes and contribute to its interpretation. The following article will try to trace these aspects of repetition in four historical novels by Peter Carey which use it to both structure their texts and convey their specific political ideas. Referring to Oscar and Lucinda, Jack Maggs, True History of the Kelly Gang and Parrot and Olivier in America, it argues that Carey’s fiction uses repetition as a strategy to both inscribe his works in literary and cultural traditions and to revisit and revise them in order to make room for other readings and interpretations.