Abstract:
This thesis addresses the writing of Wystan Curnow from 1961 to 1984. Curnow has written a
great deal throughout his life, and the challenge of this thesis has been to select an
appropriate time frame and important texts to place within it. The period of 1961 to 1984 has
been chosen because it encompasses the 1970s, an interesting decade of experimentation for
Curnow and also because the early 1980s signal a shift in Curnow's work. I argue that
Curnow's encounter with post-object art and the immediate, phenomenological writing he
produced in response to this work gives way in the early 1980s to a style of writing directly
informed by post-structural and postmodern theory. Further, this study looks not only at
Curnow's criticism but also his poetry to reveal how, in their form and content, these two
strands of writing together construct one of the first arguments for an 'avant-garde' in New
Zealand art and literature.
The thesis is divided into four chronological chapters. These follow the course of Curnow's
life from his birth in 1939 up until the publication of his seminal essay on Colin McCahon 'I
Will Need Words' in 1984. The first chapter begins with the biographical background of
Curnow's youth and education and considers the significance of the eminence of Curnow's
father, Allen Curnow, in the decisions that Wystan Curnow has made throughout his career.
This chapter then goes on to look at Curnow's experience in the United States, studying for
his Ph.D. and engaging with contemporary American culture. Chapter two begins with
Curnow's return to Auckland in 1970 and goes on to look at his important pieces of writing
from the 1970s up until his return to New York on sabbatical in 1976. Chapter three focuses
on this trip and the key texts which followed it. And finally, chapter four examines the early
1980s, the increasing influence of continental theory in New Zealand and the shift this
precipitated in Curnow's writing.
