ABSTRACT
Peter Carey's “Australian” novels that show the past and present of his once home country and explore its social and political problems often focus on the conflicts between the metropolitan, (sub)urban south and the rest of the country, and the various forms of subversion and resistance of the hinterlands towards the “centre”. Ranging from post-hippie communes that challenge the middle-class ideal of suburban bliss, through the outback that represents the heartland of the continent, to the remote deserts that reveal its ugly politics, Carey's novels construct Australian hinterlands as sites of repression, revelation, and rebellion. Drawing on Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia and discussing such texts as Bliss (1981), True History of the Kelly Gang (2000), or A Long Way from Home (2017), the chapter analyses the concept and representation of hinterlands in Carey's novels, and their function as textual mirrors set against Australia's post-colonial, post-imperial, and post-capitalist history.
