ThemakingofNewZealandliterature..docVIP

The making of New Zealand literature Standing upright New Zealanders have long been avid readers, but up until the mid-20th century most of the literature they consumed was imported from Britain. Historian and poet Keith Sinclair identified the 1950s as the time when the New Zealand intellect and imagination came alive. This flowering of creative and critical talent was not sudden, but the climax of a process that had begun at least two decades before. By the 1930s a new breed of New Zealand writers was emerging, assisted by the growth of universities and small publishing enterprises. The New Zealand centennial in 1940 provided a further boost to the local literary scene, and later that decade a state Literary Fund was established. By the 1950s there was a wider range of outlets 出路for creative writing, including the influential magazine Landfall. New voices in poetry and drama were generating heated debate over identity and politics, while writers of novels, short stories, childrens and popular fiction were also finding new audiences. New directions in the 1930s - New Zealand literature The 1930s saw the emergence in New Zealand of a new breed of writers, whose work usually embodied a reaction against established ideas and conventions. Often these writers were influenced by recent trends in literature overseas, notably modernism; and by social and political events such as the Depression. A growing, if narrow, sense of nationalism was expressed, focussing on the dilemma of Pakeha who still looked to England as Home, but increasingly identified with New Zealand through ties of kinship and daily experience. Some major literary figures of the thirties, including short story writer Frank Sargeson, poets Allen Curnow, A.R.D. Fairburn, Denis Glover and R.A.K. Mason, and Glovers printer associate Bob Lowry, remained active in the 1940s and 50s. The university influence During the decade some significant changes occurred in the literary scene. More and more, those engaged