Contested Visions of History in Aotearoa New Zealand Literature: Witi Ihimaera's The Matriarch

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dc.contributor.authorRomaine, Suzanne
dc.date.accessioned2009-12-01T23:25:15Z
dc.date.available2009-12-01T23:25:15Z
dc.date.issued2004
dc.description.abstractCompeting visions of the past constitute contested historical ground in Aotearoa New Zealand. The novel as a genre constitutes a strategic site in constructing national identity. This article illustrates how Witi Ihimaera’s historical novel The Matriarch (1986) presents a new vision that seeks to displace Päkehä discourse from its privileged position in articulating the country’s history and national identity. This transformation from outsider to insider perspective is part of a much wider movement throughout the Pacific and beyond. As a narrative that validates a Mäori version of nationhood, Ihimaera’s novel can lay a strong claim to be the novel of modern Aotearoa New Zealand. Nevertheless, the novel has received mixed reaction among both Mäori and non-Mäori commentators, especially within influential critical literary circles. These reactions constitute another sort of contested ground as they raise issues concerning notions of history, literature, truth, and fiction, and the relationships among them.
dc.identifier.citationRomaine, S. 2004. Contested Visions of History in Aotearoa New Zealand Literature: Witi Ihimaera's The Matriarch. The Contemporary Pacific 16 (1): 31-57.
dc.identifier.issn1043-898X
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10125/13769
dc.language.isoen-US
dc.publisherUniversity of Hawai'i Press
dc.publisherCenter for Pacific Islands Studies
dc.subjectAotearoa
dc.subjectNew Zealand
dc.subjectWiti Ihimaera
dc.subjectPacific literature
dc.subjectnationhood
dc.subjectidentity
dc.subjectnarration
dc.subject.lcshOceania -- Periodicals.
dc.titleContested Visions of History in Aotearoa New Zealand Literature: Witi Ihimaera's The Matriarch
dc.typeArticle
dc.type.dcmiText

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TCP [The Contemporary Pacific], 2004 - Volume 16, Number 1