Patrick Evans
Published: 2007
Total Pages: 282
Get eBook
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.