Perspectives

In what follows, we will give you some points and ideas that will help you put “Joe” by Peter Carey in perspective. We will look at the literary period and similar works.

Literary period

The short story was originally published in 1973 and then republished in 1994, a literary period that we identify with the literary movement called Postmodernism. Postmodernism began to develop after WWII as a reaction to Modernism and still prevails in literature today.

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Works in the same genre

For stories that feature a first-person narrator and are character-focused, we recommend the texts “Gideon” by Z.Z. Packer and “This is my living room” by Tom McAfee.

In “Gideon” (Worlds of English, p. 152), a first-person narrator renders a portrait of Gideon, a man she used to date when she was young.

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Works with the same themes

We also encourage you to discover how the themes of perception and family relationships are explored by other authors.

Two interesting short stories dealing with perception are “Number 4o” by Sarah Butler and “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver.

“Number 4o” follows a woman who discovers that her house has disappeared. Without her phone, unable to contact her boyfriend, the woman seems to be living a surreal experience.

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