The Long Forgetting: Post-colonial Literary Culture in New Zealand

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Canterbury University Press, 2007 - Literary Criticism - 274 pages
The Long Forgetting is the first book-length study of New Zealand's post-colonial literary culture. Beginning with a survey of the wrenching economic, social, and cultural changes that have occurred since 1970 - including Maori protest, the anti-tour protests of 1981, Rogernomics, Ruthanasia, the 'fiscal envelope' and the America's Cup win - it then moves back to the nineteenth century and the formation of Europeans' relationship with Maori. Subsequent chapters survey recent critics' work in breaking up the myth of male-dominated cultural nationalism that occupied much of the mid-twentieth century, and, returning to the years since 1970, show the rise of new writing by women, gays and Maori. A final chapter treats the 'Generation X' phenomenon, Maori writers' struggle with official biculturalism, and the rise of a distinctive, New Zealand-based Pasifika writing.

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Contents

Enough is enough 8 The postcolonial moment?
15
Becoming Māori
16
16
17
Copyright

47 other sections not shown

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About the author (2007)

Patrick Evans is a New Zealand author and playwright. He taught New Zealand literature at the University of Canterbury since 1978. His books include The Penguin History of New Zealand Literature (1990), The Long Forgetting: Postcolonial Literary Culture in New Zealand (2007), An Inward Sun: The Novels of Janet Frame (1971), and Janet Frame (1977).

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