New Zealand national character as exemplified by three New Zealand novelists

Abstract

The first aim of this thesis is to examine the writings of certain New Zealand prose-writers for any illumination of New Zealand national character, such as direct comment, character studies, descriptions of people and their reactions to certain situations; and even that indefinable quality known as 'atmosphere' which enables the reader to taste the peculiar flavour of the way of life the author is concerned with. The second aim is to work out, as far as possible, the extent to which these authors agree or disagree on the constituents of New Zealand national character. It should be noted here that there may not be agreement on some constituent simply because only one or two of the authors might have found it within the range of his experience, or relevant to his writing. Thus agreement cannot be taken as an absolute criterion for acceptance. The last aim is to form any conclusions possible from such an analysis, about the nature of New Zealand national character, and to suggest how valuable such literary material is to research of this kind.