New Zealand literature definition of New Zealand literature in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

New Zealand literature. In the 20th cent. New Zealand developed a vital literary tradition, though only a few of its authors are well-known outside its islands: Katherine Mansfield Mansfield, Katherine, 1888–1923, British author, b. New Zealand, regarded as one of the masters of the short story. Her original name was Kathleen Beauchamp. A talented cellist, she did not turn to literature until 1908.
..... Click the link for more information. , short-story writer; Sylvia Ashton-Warner Ashton-Warner, Sylvia, 1905–84, New Zealand British novelist and educator, b. Stratford, New Zealand. For years a teacher of Maori children, Ashton-Warner developed many stimulating educational methods about which she wrote in the treatise Teacher
..... Click the link for more information. , novelist and teacher; Eileen Duggan, poet; Dame Ngaio Marsh Marsh, Dame Ngaio (nī`ō), 1899–1982, New Zealand detective story writer.
..... Click the link for more information. , writer of detective fiction; and Janet Frame Frame, Janet (Janet Paterson Frame Clutha) (kl
..... Click the link for more information. , novelist. Nonetheless, New Zealand has maintained a flourishing literary culture since the 1930s. John Mulgan and Frank Sargeson initiated the New Zealand school in the interwar years, followed after World War II by Maurice Duggan, James K. Baxter, and Ian Cross. In subsequent decades, writers such as Maurice Gee and Maurice Shadbolt extended the permissible range of subjects to include New Zealand's Maori heritage. This new freedom is evident in works like Keri Hulme's The Bone People (1984) and Witi Ihimaera's writings. New Zealand has also figured in the works of many authors from Alfred Domett and Samuel Butler Butler, Samuel, 1835–1902, English author. He was the son and grandson of eminent clergymen. In 1859, refusing to be ordained, he went to New Zealand, where he established a sheep farm and in a few years made a modest fortune.
..... Click the link for more information. in the 19th cent. to the present-day students of Maori culture and New Zealand government.

Bibliography

See histories of New Zealand literature by A. Mulgan (1943), E. H. McCormick (1959), and J. C. Reid and P. Cope (1979); J. Stevens, The New Zealand Novel, 1860–1965 (2d ed. 1966); New Zealand Short Stories, a series of anthologies (1953–84); F. Adcock, The Oxford Book of Contemporary New Zealand Poetry (1982), and I. Wedde and H. McQueen, The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse (1985).