POLITICAL IDEOLOGY AND PERSONAL SPACE: PETER CAREY’S HIS ILLEGAL SELF

Abstract

The term politics has number of connotations and includes myriad of factors which pervade every domain of human activity. A strong and flummoxed political, social and ideological set up always function behind any leader, author, philosopher or individual’s viewpoint. In fact, by and large power politics determines one’s life and often other relations as well, directly or indirectly, are functioned by some kind of power mechanism. Peter Carey as post-colonial novelist raises the issues of power politics in terms of colonialism, imperialism, ideology, gender and even democracy where individuals seem as the puppet in the hands of political players.

His Illegal Self  portrays the situation of 1960s USA, emerged after Vietnam war, which gave impetuous to the rise of the ‘New Left’ as a an alternative political ideology for the intellectuals. Present paper attempts to analyze how mainstream power politics of the USA and emergence of the ‘New Left’ influenced the lives of the individuals. Analyzing the fact ‘personal is political’ the paper is focused on the capturing of individuals’ mind leaving no space for personal.