A History of New Zealand Literature

by Mark Williams (Editor)

Overview

A History of New Zealand Literature traces the genealogy of New Zealand literature from its first imaginings by Europeans in the eighteenth century. Beginning with a comprehensive introduction that charts the growth of, and challenges to, a nationalist literary tradition, the essays in this History illuminate the cultural and political intricacies of New Zealand literature, surveying the multilayered verse, fiction and drama of such diverse writers as Katherine Mansfield, Allen Curnow, Frank Sargeson, Janet Frame, Keri Hulme, Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace. Written by a host of leading scholars, this History devotes special attention to the lasting significance of colonialism, biculturalism and multiculturalism in New Zealand literature. A History of New Zealand Literature is of pivotal importance to the development of New Zealand writing and will serve as an invaluable reference for specialists and students alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107085350
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/19/2016
Pages:	417
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Mark Williams is Professor of English at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. He is the author of Leaving the Highway: Six Contemporary New Zealand Novelists, Patrick White, and, with Jane Stafford, Maoriland: New Zealand Literature 1872–1914. Williams has also coedited, with Jane Stafford, The Auckland University Press Anthology of New Zealand Literature and, with Ralph Crane and Jane Stafford, The World Novel to 1950.

Table of Contents

Introduction Mark Williams; 1. A world of waters: imagining, voyaging, entanglement Ingrid Horrocks; 2. Early Māori literature: the writing of Hakaraia Kiharoa Arini Loader; 3. Samuel Butler's influence Simon During; 4. Maoriland reservations Jane Stafford; 5. Katherine Mansfield: colonial modernist Bridget Orr; 6. Colonial ecologies: Guthrie-Smith's Tutira and writing in the settled environment Philip Steer; 7. Defiance and melodrama: fiction in the period of national 'invention', 1920–50 Alex Calder; 8. Journalism and high culture: Robin Hyde among the cultural nationalists Nikki Hessell; 9. 'Simply by sailing in a new direction': the poetics of distance Stuart Murray; 10. 'Rough architects': New Zealand literature and its institutions from Phoenix to Landfall Christopher Hilliard; 11. Against the social pattern: New Zealand fiction, 1950–70 Timothy Jones; 12. Janet Frame: myths of authorship, 1950–90 Marc Delrez; 13. Te ao hou: Te pataka Alice Te Punga Somerville; 14. Out of the drawing room and onto the beach: drama, 1950–70 Mark Houlahan; 15. 'Physician of society': the poet in the 1950s and 1960s Alan Riach; 16. From Hiruharama to Hataitai: the domestication of New Zealand poetry, 1972–90 Harry Ricketts and Mark Williams; 17. The novel, the short story and the rise of a new reading public, 1972–90 Lydia Wevers; 18. 'Dbed and chocolate wheaten beaten': drama defining the nation, 1972–90 David O'Donnell; 19. The Māori renaissance 1972 Melissa Kennedy; 20. 'While history happens elsewhere': fiction and political quietism, 1990–2014 Dougal McNeill; 21. Anecdote in post-1990s New Zealand poetry Anna Smaill; 22. From exploring identity to facing the world: drama since 1990 Stuart Young; 23. From meadow to paddock: children's and young adult literature Anna Jackson; 24. 'Nafanua and the New World': Pasifika's writing of Niu Zealand Selina Tusitala Marsh; 25. New Zealand literature in the program era, or, the spirit of nationalism past Hugh Roberts; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'… a rewarding collection replete with the pleasure of new information that is both strange and strangely familiar.' Elizabeth McMahon, Australian Book Review

From the Publisher