New Zealand literature

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The New Zealand literature includes stories , the poetry and the theater of New Zealand , which still mainly in English are written, although publications in the language of Maori continue to rise. From this point of view, New Zealand's literary development is described as "bicultural".

Early Maori literature

The beginnings of New Zealand literature go back to the narrative tradition of the native Māori who had settled the country from 900–1000 and then increasingly from Polynesia since the 14th century . Stories and myths were only passed on orally by the Maori. At the beginning of the 19th century, Christian missionaries began to write these stories down. For this purpose, the Polynesian languages ​​were written down in writing. However, in the pre-colonial period, i. H. before 1840, not "literature" in the sense in which the term is used in European cultures. It is said that the first written reports of the Maori, which were written around 1815, dealt with the conquest of the country by the Europeans.

The earliest New Zealand poetry was Maori ( Waiata ) chants . They were collected by George Edward Gray and first published in 1955.

The Maori theater is characterized by ritual acts and performances. The performers did not play personalized roles. In recent times, authors of Maori origin have been directed against the arbitrariness of “bicultural” approaches, such as the representation of Maori culture in English-language pieces.

English-language literature

As a result of the economic boom in the 1860s, theaters were built in most places, in which mainly ensembles appeared, who came from Australia and traveled from one stage to the next. But there were also local theater groups. Mainly comedies were performed ; most of the pieces played at that time have only been handed down by name. Initially, travel was only possible along the coast. The theater therefore experienced a boom when the railway opened up inland. This boom was then dampened again when the cinema emerged. Amateur theaters , which came together in most cities in the late 1920s, some of which were directed by professional directors , filled the gap . Ngaio Marsh founded a Shakespeare Company at Canterbury University College in 1943, which existed until 1972. The New Zealand Players and the Community Arts Service Theater have become famous. An important impetus for the stage came in the period after the Second World War from radio and the public funding of theaters.

The English-language poetry initially took up the same subjects that were also dealt with in Victorian poetry . In some cases, the New Zealand dialect was also experimented with (John Barr).

In the period after the First World War, novels were mainly written, in which events from their own colonial history were dealt with. Since the 1930s, after the Commonwealth gained independence from Great Britain, society began to be critically examined through the means of literature. A revival in literary production and publishing came from the universities. In 1932, Phoenix Magazine was founded by a group of students in Auckland that did not last long. In 1939 the New Zealand Listener was founded. Landfall magazine was added in 1947 .

Alice Esther Glen (1881–1940), born in Christchurch, New Zealand, is one of New Zealand 's most important children and young people's authors. At the age of 11 she won a short story competition organized by the English magazine Little Folks . Her most successful books include the classics for children and young people, Six little New Zealanders (1917) and Uncles Three at Kamahi (1926). In her honor, the Esther Glen Award was launched in 1945 , New Zealand's oldest and most prestigious children's book award to this day.

The centenary of the founding of the state in 1940 is widely seen as a turning point in cultural development. While authors from Great Britain were predominantly read before, since then a national feeling has developed for the first time, which has also had an impact on literature: the authors no longer feel like British exiles, but New Zealanders. Only since then have their own themes and stylistic means developed.

In the prose, the form of the short story dominated until the 1970s, based on Frank Sargeson , whose narrative was for a long time considered "typically New Zealand".

New Zealand literature today

The Maori language has been preserved to this day and can also be learned in some schools. Although Maori publications have become more common, “Maori literature” continues to focus on English-language writings dealing with Maori subjects.

New Zealand claims to have many authors. This even includes immigrants who were born abroad and citizens who have emigrated. An exception is, for example, Samuel Butler , whose utopian novel Erewhon is set in New Zealand and was written as the result of a stay in New Zealand; Butler is part of English-language literature . Karl Wolfskehl , who emigrated to Auckland in 1938 and lived there for 10 years, is considered a representative of German exile literature .

New Zealand writers often moved to the UK or Australia to escape the country's geographical and artistic isolation.

Well-known New Zealand authors include Katherine Mansfield ( The Garden Party and other short stories , 1922) and Keri Hulme , who received the Booker Prize , the most important British literary prize, in 1985 for her novel The Bone People ( Under the Day Moon , 1984) . Witi Ihimaera is the most important author whose books are written in the Maori language . His books, along with those of Patricia Grace, have led to a Maori renaissance since the 1970s .

The first (English-language) historical novel from the pen of de Maori chief's son Heretaunga Pat Baker (1920–1988) in 1975, which describes the settlement of New Zealand from a Maori point of view, also contributed to this. This book was continued in Baker's posthumously published History of Colonization in the 1860s.

Nevertheless, in 1986 the publication of Potiki by Patricia Grace, in which some passages in Maori occur, caused unrest because no glossary was added. The author was accused of excluding whites.

In the following twenty years the literature of writers of Maori origin became more diverse. This development should be seen against the background of a further emancipation of New Zealand from Great Britain, which during this time turned more and more away from its former colony. The Maori language, which is still spoken by approximately 150,000 (out of a total of 4.4 million) New Zealanders, was also formally recognized as an official language of New Zealand by the Maori Language Act of 1987.

New Zealand was the guest country of the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2012 , under the motto: "Before it gets light - While you were sleeping".

Publishing and author associations

The New Zealand publishers are organized in the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) . The association represents the interests of both small and large publishing houses vis-à-vis politics and the rest of the media industry at home and abroad.

The New Zealand Writer's Guild (NZWG) is an association of authors that represents the interests of New Zealand writers from all genres - film, television, theater, radio, new media and comics - as a union.

Librarianship

The libraries have played an important role in the dissemination of literature in New Zealand from the late 19th century. The first Public Library Act was passed in 1869.

The library of the University of Auckland , founded in 1884, and the Alexander Turnbull Library from the estate of Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull , who died in 1918, were particularly significant . The latter has been in the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington since 1966 , where it is also scientifically developed. In particular, the collection includes an exceptional collection of works on John Milton and the Pacific.

The postal service was of crucial importance for the development of the library system in New Zealand, because in many cases this was the only way to get books to the user.

See also

literature

  • Patrick Evans: The Penguin History of New Zealand Literature . Penguin, Harmondsworth 1990, ISBN 0-14-011371-1 (English).
  • Metzler Lexicon of English-speaking authors . 631 portraits - from the beginning to the present. Edited by Eberhard Kreutzer and Ansgar Nünning , Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01746-X
  • Roger Robinson et al. a. (Ed.): The Oxford companion to New Zealand literature . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, ISBN 0-19-558348-5 (English).
  • Terry Sturm (Ed.): The Oxford history of New Zealand literature in English . Oxford University Press, Auckland, New York 1991.

Web links

 Wikinews: New Zealand to be the guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2012  - News

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maori . In: Munzinger Online / Brockhaus - Encyclopedia in 30 volumes . 21st edition. (Updated with articles from the Brockhaus editorial team).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Nouvelle-Zélande. Literature. Encyclopédie Larousse, accessed June 4, 2011 (French).
  3. ↑ Maori origins and arivals. Pacific migrations. Te Ara, March 4, 2009, accessed June 5, 2011 (Official Encyclopedia of New Zealand).
  4. ^ "Maori theater". In: The Cambridge Guide to Theater. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Credo Reference. Retrieved June 4, 2011.
  5. ^ "New Zealand." In: The Cambridge Guide to Theater. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Credo Reference. Retrieved June 4, 2011.
  6. ^ A b New Zealand literature . In: Munzinger Online / Brockhaus - Encyclopedia in 30 volumes . 21st edition. (Updated with articles from the Brockhaus editorial team).
  7. ^ "New Zealand Literature." Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. London: Continuum, 2005. In: Credo Reference. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  8. ^ The making of New Zealand literature. 1930-1960 . In: New Zealand History . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , October 12, 2010, accessed June 5, 2011 .
  9. ↑ a b "New Zealand literature in English". In: Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature. London: Continuum, 2006. Credo Reference. Retrieved June 4, 2011.
  10. ↑ Heretaunga Pat Baker: Behind The Tattooed Face (Eng. “The Last Prophecy”), MANA-Verlag 2000 and 2012.
  11. ↑ Heretaunga Pat Baker: The strongest God. 1990.
  12. ^ Marten Hahn: Grande Dame of Maori literature , Deutschlandradio Kultur, October 11, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Maori". In: The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. Abington: Helicon, 2010. Credo Reference. Retrieved June 4, 2011.
  14. ↑ A taste of New Zealand . In: boersenblatt.net. February 28, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  15. ↑ About us. What we do. . In: publishers.org.nz. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  16. ↑ Welcome to NZWG. A Creative Union For Writers. Film, television, theater, radio, new media, comics . In: nzwritersguild.org.nz. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  17. ↑ a b c Article "libraries" . Section: 4. Australia and New Zealand. In: The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. From: Credo Reference. Retrieved March 27, 2012.