“[P]ulling tomorrow’s sky from [the] kete”
-
Hanne Birk
Abstract
Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia constitute plural, heterogeneous and hybrid spaces, in which a multiplicity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures live together but are not treated equally. How can indigenous novels contribute to ensuing transcultural negotiations of competitive and synergetic processes of re/membering in “post”-colonial contexts? What roles do the texts play in the construction processes of different versions of the past and of cultural identities? Proposed answers rely on a cultural contextualization of “classic” categories of narratology: Indigenized methods of a “post”-colonial narratology are used to interpret culture-specific representations of cultural re/membering and to outline transcultural functional potentials of a contemporary Māori novel, Patricia Grace’s Potiki (1986), complemented by references to a First Australian text, Bruce Pascoe’s Earth (2001).
Abstract
Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia constitute plural, heterogeneous and hybrid spaces, in which a multiplicity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures live together but are not treated equally. How can indigenous novels contribute to ensuing transcultural negotiations of competitive and synergetic processes of re/membering in “post”-colonial contexts? What roles do the texts play in the construction processes of different versions of the past and of cultural identities? Proposed answers rely on a cultural contextualization of “classic” categories of narratology: Indigenized methods of a “post”-colonial narratology are used to interpret culture-specific representations of cultural re/membering and to outline transcultural functional potentials of a contemporary Māori novel, Patricia Grace’s Potiki (1986), complemented by references to a First Australian text, Bruce Pascoe’s Earth (2001).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editor’s note vii
- Glossing abbreviations ix
- About the authors xi
- Introduction 1
-
Inside the storyworld
- Moving through space and (not?) time 15
- We’ve never seen a cyclone like this 37
-
Telling narratives, constructing identities
- Local ecological knowledge in Mortlockese narrative 61
- Small stories and associated identities in Neverver 81
- ‘Sometime is lies’ 101
-
Narrative memories, cultures and identities
- Constructing Kanaka Maoli identity through narrative 119
- ‘Stories of long ago’ and the forces of modernity in South Pentecost 135
- Australian South Sea Islanders’ narratives of belonging 155
- Avatars of Fiji’s Girmit narrative 177
- Samoan narratives 193
- “[P]ulling tomorrow’s sky from [the] kete” 209
- Beyond exile 225
- Embodied silent narratives of masculinities 243
- Index 259
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editor’s note vii
- Glossing abbreviations ix
- About the authors xi
- Introduction 1
-
Inside the storyworld
- Moving through space and (not?) time 15
- We’ve never seen a cyclone like this 37
-
Telling narratives, constructing identities
- Local ecological knowledge in Mortlockese narrative 61
- Small stories and associated identities in Neverver 81
- ‘Sometime is lies’ 101
-
Narrative memories, cultures and identities
- Constructing Kanaka Maoli identity through narrative 119
- ‘Stories of long ago’ and the forces of modernity in South Pentecost 135
- Australian South Sea Islanders’ narratives of belonging 155
- Avatars of Fiji’s Girmit narrative 177
- Samoan narratives 193
- “[P]ulling tomorrow’s sky from [the] kete” 209
- Beyond exile 225
- Embodied silent narratives of masculinities 243
- Index 259
