Identity Construction in the British-New Zealand Imperial Diaspora by Lilja Mareike
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‘I CAN TELL YOU THIS IS A FINE COUNTRY’: IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN THE BRITISH-NEW ZEALAND IMPERIAL DIASPORA BY LILJA MAREIKE SAUTTER A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Victoria University of Wellington (2013) 1 Abstract This thesis uses diaspora theory to analyse late-nineteenth-century texts written by women in New Zealand. The texts include a number of novels as well as non-fictional journals and memoirs. Robin Cohen‟s definition of diaspora provides a framework for understanding the British settler community in New Zealand as an imperial diaspora. My approach modifies Cohen‟s framework by also employing constructivist theories of diaspora, in particular by Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy and James Clifford. These theorists see identity as continuously produced within representation and diaspora as furthering cultural crossover and hybrid identities. This view of the British diaspora reveals fissures within the teleological ideology of the nation-state, which underlies imperialism. Rather than focusing on a binary of imperial centre and colonial periphery, I understand the diasporic community in New Zealand as part of an international network in which mobility and a shared print culture provided manifold connections. The main research question asks how the texts participate in the construction of identity in the diasporic community in New Zealand and how they situate themselves within a wider context of diasporic print culture. It focuses both on the identity of women within the community and on the significance of notions of women‟s role, femininity and women‟s writing for the identity production of the community as a whole. The three sections, „Journey‟, „Settling‟ and „Community‟, trace the diaspora‟s narrative production of its collective identity through time and space. They consider the diaspora‟s textual imagining of its journey to New Zealand, its project of settling there, and its building of a distinct community. It emerges that the texts usually attempt to reconcile a number of contradictions and conflicting discourses, at the basis of which lies a fundamental tension between the diaspora‟s dispersal from the homeland and its need to produce a collective identity. This tension leads to an underlying instability within the texts and frequently causes them to deconstruct their own ostensible ideologies. However, at the same time the texts offer a number of powerful ideas and narratives which allow the diaspora to create a complex but meaningful collective identity. 2 3 Acknowledgements First, big thanks to my supervisors Jane Stafford and Mark Williams, who have been very supportive. It was when I found their book Maoriland in a library in Germany that I had the idea of writing this thesis, and without Jane‟s help I might not have made it over here. Their support and feedback on my work have been valuable over the last three years. The postgraduate community and everyone else at SEFTMS made me feel very welcome and I appreciate that I was given an office with such a beautiful view. Heidi Thomson did great work as postgraduate coordinator and the many events she organised helped me settle in when I first arrived. Sabine Schülting and the participants of her research seminar in Berlin helped me develop an initial research proposal and supported me in my plan to go to New Zealand. Kate Williman, Naomi Shulman, Daniel Herbstreit and Craig Johnson provided a lot of help by proofreading drafts of my research proposal and my thesis. Many thanks to the staff at the Alexander Turnbull Library, who always did their best to help me navigate my way through stacks of old manuscripts. I would not have been able to do this without the financial support of a Victoria PhD Scholarship. Thanks also go to everyone at Disability Services for the work experience over the last year that has allowed me to meet fascinating people and work in such a rewarding environment. My parents, my sister Nelly, the rest of my big family, and my friends both here and in Europe have supported me in ways too numerous to mention. I thank everyone associated with the Mother Flat for being awesome, and most of all I thank Craig for coming such a long way to be with me. 4 5 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................1 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................3 Contents ..................................................................................................................................5 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................9 Diaspora Studies ................................................................................................................... 11 Cohen‟s Notion of Diaspora............................................................................................... 11 Diaspora and Identity Production ....................................................................................... 13 Imperial Diaspora: a Contradiction? .................................................................................. 16 Decentring the Settler Empire ............................................................................................ 18 Selection of Texts .................................................................................................................. 22 Time Frame: Mid-1870s to 1914 ....................................................................................... 22 Gender .............................................................................................................................. 22 Fiction and Non-Fiction ..................................................................................................... 25 Literature Review .................................................................................................................. 28 Outline .................................................................................................................................. 30 Section I: Journey ................................................................................................................... 35 The Voyage as Link and Separation ................................................................................... 36 The Ambiguity of a „Position of Enunciation‟ on Board Ship ............................................. 37 Part 1: Non-Fiction.................................................................................................................... 39 1 Routes and Histories: Shipboard Diaries ......................................................................... 39 1.1 Writing Space and Time........................................................................................... 39 1.2 Journey and Empire ................................................................................................. 46 Part 2: Fiction ........................................................................................................................... 53 2 Negotiating Distance: Over the Hills, and Far Away ....................................................... 53 Conclusion to Section I ......................................................................................................... 62 6 Section II: Settling ................................................................................................................... 63 „Home‟: Homeland and Hostland ...................................................................................... 63 The Host Society ............................................................................................................... 66 Women Settlers ................................................................................................................. 68 Part 1: Non-Fiction.................................................................................................................... 71 3 Land and Text: The Journals of Ann Jackson and Alice McKenzie .................................. 71 3.1 The Transformation of the Hostland......................................................................... 71 3.1.1 The Beautiful and the Useful ....................................................................... 71 3.1.2 Land as Agricultural Space .......................................................................... 75 3.2 Landscape and Textual Space .................................................................................. 77 3.2.1 Writing the Sublime: Journal of Conscience ................................................ 77 3.2.2 Shared Texts ................................................................................................ 82 4 The Ideal Peach: Mary Rolleston‟s Travel Writing .......................................................... 85 4.1 Gardens: Cultivating and Civilising the Land........................................................... 86 4.2 Imperialist Tropes: Describing the Host Society ...................................................... 90 4.3 Contested Territory .................................................................................................. 93 5 Constructing the Pioneer Days: Memoirs ........................................................................ 97 Part 2: Fiction