Looking at the Works of Alice Tawhai: an Argument For
LOOKING AT THE WORKS OF ALICE TAWHAI: AN ARGUMENT FOR MĀORI LITERARY NATIONALISM By Charlie (Natasha) Holland A thesis presented to The Victoria University of Wellington in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Victoria University of Wellington October 2009 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Alice Te Punga Somerville for all her support and to Prof. Lydia Wevers for helping me in the final stages of completing my work. To the organisers of the Manurere Postgraduate Travel Grant, Federation of Graduate Women (Wellington Branch), Te Ha and Ngā Pou Kaituhi Māori committees of Toi Māori Aotearoa, and especially my Mum for funding my trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the 2009 Native American Literary Symposium – thank you. I would also like to thank my partner Jayde for her continuous support over the years it has taken me to research and produce this thesis. Abstract Contemporary Māori writer Alice Tawhai has published two collections of short stories, Festival of Miracles (2005) and Luminous (2007). Tawhai’s narratives portray Māori people living an array of diverse lifestyles and her collections include stories about isolation, gangs, substance abuse, identity, education, art and spirituality; her work has been reviewed in literary magazines and online as new fiction that reflected a contemporary society in Aotearoa and these literary reviews imply that Tawhai’s stories are a reflection of Māori people. For Māori readers, Tawhai’s narratives demand a different interpretation of the text, a different way of reading, in order to read these stories of their own merits.
[Show full text]