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This is the first volume of essays by various hands on the work of the great Australian novelist Christina Stead (1902-83). It provides an overview of Stead criticism, including pioneering 'classic' essays, together with a selection from the burgeoning critical literature of the 1980s and '90s, and several articles not previously published.
Aotearoa New Zealand, “a tiny Pacific country,” is of great interest to those engaged in postcolonial and literary studies throughout the world. In all former colonies, myths of national identity are vested with various interests. Shifts in collective Pakeha (or New Zealand-European) identity have been marked by the phenomenal popularity of three novels, each at a time of massive social change. Late-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and the collapse of the idea of a singular ‘nation’ can be traced through the reception of John Mulgan’s Man Alone (1939), Keri Hulme’s the bone people (1983), and Alan Duff’s Once Were Warriors (1990). Yet close analysis of these three novels also reveals marginalization and silencing in claims to singular Pakeha identity and a linear development of settler acculturation. Such a dynamic resonates with that of other ‘settler’ cultures – the similarities and differences telling in comparison. Specifically, Reading Pakeha? Fiction and Identity in Aotearoa New Zealand explores how concepts of race and ethnicity intersect with those of gender, sex, and sexuality. This book also asks whether ‘Pakeha’ is still a meaningful term.
The Spirit of Colin McCahon provides a vivid historical contextualisation of New Zealand’s premier modern artist, clearly explaining his esoteric religious themes and symbols. Via a framework of visual rhetoric, this book explores the social factors that formed McCahon’s religious and environmental beliefs, and justifications as to why his audience often missed the intended point of spiritual his discourse – or chose to ignore it. The Spirit of Colin McCahon tracks the intricate process by which the artist’s body of work turned from optimism to misery, and explains the many communicative techniques he employed in order to arrest suspicion towards his Christian prophecy. More broadly,...
From the "golden weather" of postwar economic growth, through the globalization, economic challenges, and protest of the 1960s and 1970s, to the free market revolution and new immigrants of the 1980s and 1990s and beyond, this account, the most complete and comprehensive history of New Zealand since 1945, illustrates the chronological and social history of the country with the engaging stories of real individuals and their experiences. Leading historians Jennifer Carlyon and Diana Morrow discuss in great depth New Zealand's move toward nuclear-free status, its embrace of a small-state, free-market ideology, and the seeming rejection of its citizens of a society known for the "worship of averages." Stories of pirate radio in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, the first DC8 jets landing at Mangere airport, feminists liberating pubs, public protests over the closing of post offices, and indigenous language nests vividly demonstrate how a postwar society famous around the world for its dull conformity became one of the most ethnically, economically, and socially diverse countries on earth.
This volume contains a selection of the Australian poet Michael Sharkey’s uncollected essays and occasional writings on poetics and poets, chiefly Australian and New Zealand. Reviews and conversations with other poets highlight Sharkey’s concern with preserving and interrogating cultural memory and his engagement with the practice and championing of poetry. Poets discussed range from Lord Byron to colonial-era and early-twentieth-century poets (Francis Adams, David McKee Wright, and Zora Cross), under-represented Australian women poets of World War I, traditionalists and experimentalists, including several ‘New Australian Poetry’ activists of the 1970s, and contemporary Australian an...
Reader's Guide Literature in English provides expert guidance to, and critical analysis of, the vast number of books available within the subject of English literature, from Anglo-Saxon times to the current American, British and Commonwealth scene. It is designed to help students, teachers and librarians choose the most appropriate books for research and study.
Playwright and screenwriter David Williamson is Australia's best known and most popular dramatist. This authoritative account of Williamson's phenomenal career, draws on his early writings, unpublished drafts, letters and journal entries; as well as recollections off friends and colleagues.
" ... At the invitation of the Australia-New Zealand Foundation and as a recognition of two hundred years of European settlement in Australia, the noted historian, Sir Keith Sinclair, has brought together a team of authorities from both sides of the Tasman. Experts in their fields, they present a lucid, perceptive and astonishingly coherent picture of 200 years of contact. Chapters range from a fascinating account of Maori perceptions of Australian settlement in the 1840s to a detailed study of recent trade relations between two countries, including the recent CER (Closer Economic Relations) free trade agreement. Among subjects covered are population, literary relations, defence, and religio...