The Settler's Plot: How Stories Take Place in New Zealand

The Settler's Plot: How Stories Take Place in New Zealand

Alex Calder
$45.00
Publication Date: October 1st, 2011
Publisher:
Auckland University Press
ISBN:
9781869404888
Pages:
312

Description

A study of the relationship between writing, place, and the history of the Pakeha/European settlement in New Zealand, this book explores the most frequently chosen settings in classic New Zealand literature—the beach, the farm, the bush, and the suburb—and reflects on the plots and storylines that go with them. Through fascinating and unpredictable readings of some of the country’s greatest works, writers such as Curnow, Frame, Mansfield, and Sargeson are viewed from new angles, while neglected masterpieces by Guthrie-Smith and Maning are deemed central to New Zealand tradition. Topics include identity, cross-culturalism, the settling and unsettling of land, suburbanization, and the role of distance.

About the Author

Alex Calder is an English lecturer at the University of Auckland and the cofounder of the literary magazine And. He is the recipient of a Marsden Fund Award and the author of numerous books, including Old New Zealand and Other Writings and Voyages and Beaches: Pacific Encounters, 1769–1840.

Praise for The Settler's Plot: How Stories Take Place in New Zealand

"Amounts to a full literary history of New Zealand. Its sense of who the important writers are is pitch-perfect. . . . Though written for New Zealanders, this book will nonetheless prove enriching to a broad audience. . . . Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty." —CHOICE (December 1, 2011)