Bill Pearson (writer)

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Bill Pearson , full name William Harrison Pearson (born January 18, 1922 in Greymouth , † September 27, 2002 in Auckland ) was a New Zealand writer and literary critic . His only novel, Coal Flat , was considered the most important New Zealand novel of its time.

Life

Pearson's father was employed by the New Zealand Railroad Company; his mother died when he was 16 years old. With the support of his father, Pearson began studying English at various New Zealand and English universities. In 1942 he worked as a teacher for a short time, but then, despite his pacifist beliefs, volunteered as a soldier in World War II , as he found it less hypocritical to fight in war himself. In a training camp in Egypt he was classified as unfit, but did not take advantage of the opportunity to leave the army, fearing that he could be said to have avoided military service. He eventually served in Japan.

During this time Pearson wrote (partly autobiographical ) stories that were published in various literary magazines, but only appeared as the book edition Six Stories in 1991. After the war he returned to England, where he completed his studies and again worked as a teacher. In 1952 he received his doctorate from King's College London . During the fifties he published various essays ; at the same time he worked for fifteen years on his novel Coal Flat , which finally appeared in 1963. In 1959 Pearson returned to New Zealand, where he taught at the University of Auckland until 1986 . He only spent the years between 1967 and 1969 as a visiting professor in Canberra , where he met his partner, the medical doctor Donald Stenhouse. Pearson was one of the first university teachers to offer seminars on New Zealand literature. The representation of the Māori took on a special role for him . Pearson no longer published other fictional works. Pearson publicly represented his political ideals throughout his life; Among other things, he actively campaigned for nuclear disarmament, the rights of homosexuals and against apartheid .

plant

The novel Coal Flat addresses the New Zealand mentality, which Pearson had already dealt with in a critical way in his stories and essays. Recurring themes are lethargy and conformism ; Pearson saw it as likely that New Zealanders would also accept a fascist government. While he explicitly stated this point of view in some essays, it is not expressed in Coal Flat , but plays a role as a recurring motif. The main character of the novel is the young teacher Paul Rogers, who feels drawn to a student and is ultimately accused of child abuse . The novel has naturalistic tendencies. Criticism has in part compared Coal Flat to George Eliot's novel Middlemarch . However, Pearson said he hadn't read Eliot at the time.

Pearson's critical essays often dealt with the representation of the indigenous people in literature - first especially in New Zealand, later in that of the entire Pacific region. His critical and literary work is counted as postcolonialism . He deconstructed both one-sidedly negative and idealizing representations and pointed out underlying clichés and weaknesses. Nevertheless, he himself attributed values ​​to the indigenous cultures that he missed among the European settlers. Pearson also appeared as the editor of Frank Sargeson's works .

Bibliography (selection)

  • Coal Flat (novel, 1963)
  • Henry Lawson Among the Maoris (review, 1964)
  • Fretful Sleepers and Other Essays (Essays and Criticism, 1974)
  • Rifled Sanctuaries: Some Views of the Pacific Islands in Western Literature to 1900 (Review, 1984)
  • Six Stories (collection of short stories , 1991)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ New Zealand Book Council , viewed February 23, 2010
  2. ^ A b Paul Millar: William Harrison Pearson: 1922-2002 , in Journal of New Zealand Literature , No. 20, pp. 164-169
  3. ^ A b Eugene Benson / LW Conolly (ed.): Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English , Routledge: London / New York (1994), Vol. 2, p. 1211
  4. ↑ Roger Robinson / Nelson Wattie (eds.): The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature (1998) , viewed February 23, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Pearson, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pearson, William Harrison
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand writer and literary critic
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Greymouth , New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 2002
Place of death Auckland , New Zealand