Author(s): Rittick Dey

Abstract: Marxism locates all forms of art within existing social conditions of economic and politics, even as it approaches the art-object as an important element within social relations through which particular meanings are standardized and held up as good taste in order to marginalize and ignore other meanings. Marxism sees this battle over meaning as reflecting a battle between dominant and oppressed sections of the society. The essence of the Marxism was undeniably the core of Karl Marx’s own intellectual trajectory throughout his life, and his friend and German philosopher Friedrich Engels brought the practice of Marxism as a concept into popularity. Marxism is inextricably associated with the idea of Capitalism where the bourgeoisie class of the society controls the means of production. The present approach of the paper is to inspect closely True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey that describes the autobiographical narration of a real life Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly through the lens of Marxism with its emphasis on Capitalism. Ned Kelly wanted to write his life's historical account for his unborn daughter in order to reveal the truth and reality behind the injustices and enduring struggle that he suffered at the hand of the society. The physical existence of the Kelly family, especially Ned Kelly has been exploited by the wealthy and powerful people of the time. This study mainly aims to conceptualize Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang from a Marxist point-of-view. It proposes to understand the embedded features of Capitalism as well as different concepts associated with it in the novel True History of the Kelly Gang.

Keywords: Australian Novel, Ned Kelly, Marxism, Karl Marx, Capitalism

Article Info: Received: 03 Jan 2025; Received in revised form: 05 Feb 2025; Accepted: 12 Feb 2025; Available online: 22 Feb 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.101.24