New Zealand Literature 2

Description

Although titled New Zealand Literature 2, ENGL210 is an introduction to New Zealand literature. There is no stage-one prerequisite for this course. ENGL210 has a twentieth-century focus, and, in its survey of the century, highlights the writing of (among others) such figures as Katherine Mansfield, Allen Curnow, Ursula Bethell and Frank Sargeson; the early and late poetry of James K Baxter; the short fiction of Janet Frame, and the novel, Sydney Bridge Upside Down by David Ballantyne. The course concludes with texts by Patricia Grace, Keri Hulme, and Robert Sullivan. Course texts have been selected for the way in which they engage the issues of translation (and metaphor) by which different ideas of ‘New Zealandness’ have been established and critiqued. What is it we mean when we speak of New Zealand literature? What are the assumptions, readings and interpretations employed in the formation of something like a New Zealand identity, and what are their contexts? These are some of the questions we will have occasion to consider during the course.