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.
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