Katherine Mansfield’s encounter with New Zealand literature

How Katherine Mansfield may have encountered New Zealand literature will be explored by Professor Jane Stafford at a Victoria University of Wellington public lecture next week.

As part of her inaugural lecture to mark her professorial promotion, Professor Stafford will also discuss just what was meant by New Zealand literature during Mansfield’s time, or if such a term is even justified.

“What we might want to describe as early New Zealand literature actually began elsewhere and under different classifications,” says Professor Stafford.

“It began as something almost indistinguishable from the literature of empire, incorporating a range of clichés. In fact, many so-called New Zealand writers of the time never actually visited the country.

“Even by the 1880s, the time of Mansfield’s birth, some accounts see New Zealand writing as a subcategory of Australian literature, and not something denoting a distinct nationhood.”  

According to Professor Stafford, much of the work at the time had an emphasis on the physical environment, rather than something more self-conscious or reflective.

“It was suggested by some at the time that New Zealand’s literary development required a close affiliation with England, should it wish to move beyond a country of ‘mountains and minor poets’ as it was once described.”

Professor Stafford will discuss the gradual push to distinguish local writing from the established English tradition through such publications as school readers, and how these may have influenced Mansfield and her writing style and ambitions.

“From these influences, one can see a progression of themes in Mansfield’s writing, from orderly flower beds to gothic bush haunted by the ghosts of Māori: fiction which moved from more romantic notions of colonialism to raw stories of settler despair,” says Professor Stafford.

When: 6pm, Tuesday 25 August

Where: Lecture Theatre 301, Kirk Building, Kelburn Campus, Victoria University of Wellington

RSVP: Before Friday 21 August. Email rsvp@vuw.ac.nz with ‘Stafford’ in the subject line or phone 04-463 6300.

For more information contact Jane Stafford on 04-463 6816 or jane.stafford@vuw.ac.nz