English 355: New Zealand Literature explores a selection of classic and contemporary works by great writers in relation to ideas about history, place, memory, and culture. We look at how versions of the past have been constructed through literature and explore the significance of those constructs for New Zealanders today. We consider what Pierre Nora describes as the tensions between memory and history and provide a rich and complex map of divergent texts. Authors featured in the course include Witi Ihimaera, Janet Frame, Allen Curnow, Frank Sargeson, Katherine Mansfield, Hone Tuwhare, Maurice Gee, Robin Hyde, Airini Beautrais, Tusiata Avia, Chris Tse and more.
Students will study a selection of poetry, non-fiction, short stories, and novels. These genres, however, like languages, often blur. We introduce strategies for transcultural reading, Indigenous literary theories, and new historicist approaches to narrative. We explore problems of European settlement and consider how encounters between tangata whenua and tauiwi have influenced writing In Aotearoa. Such issues are by no means confined to a distant past: we find them continuing, with variations, throughout the course, including writings from recent immigrants living within the New Zealand diaspora.
Students will participate in workshops of each other’s drafts to develop their own critical and creative writing, and their ability to give constructive feedback.