The History of the Short Story in New Zealand

Abstract

The thesis will be an investigation of the history of the short story in New Zealand, attempting to shift the focus away from a (implicitly hierarchical) sequence of writers who specialised in short stories to a consideration of the ascendancy of type in short fiction at certain times (for example the domination of nineteenth century short fiction by oral narratives and romance); the preoccupations of groups of writers who share a collective identity (especially Maori and women); and the recurrence of some kinds of narratives (for example Pakeha writers writing about the Maori). I propose to explore both the construction of 'reality' and 'New Zealand' in the short story, demonstrating how race, gender, and sometimes class/wealth figure in that construction, and generally suggest that the short story's dominance in New zealand's fiction makes it both a significant medium for cultural identity, and a context for a postcolonial discourse characterized by recurring questions about origin and subjectivity.