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The recent popularity of mass-market New Zealand historical fiction coincides with the increasing vocality of particular cultural discourses that resist the influence of revisionist histories on dominant understandings of national identity. This thesis examines how the depiction of colonial history in four such novels legitimates and sustains hegemonic understandings of New Zealand as culturally European. The novels analysed are The Denniston Rose (2003) by Jenny Pattrick, Tamar (2002) by Deborah Challinor, The Cost of Courage (2003) by Carol Thomas, and The Love Apple (2005) by Coral Atkinson. The cultural context in which these books have been produced is situated within a history of nationalist discourses and Raymond Williams’s theorisation of hegemonic cultural processes is employed to explain how contemporary national culture continues to rely on colonial principles that sustain settler cultural dominance. Close analysis of the temporal and geographical settings of the novels reveals how the portrayal of history in these novels evades colonial conquest and the Māori cultural presence. A comparison of the historical and contemporary cultural significance of the spatial settings employed in these novels – the wilderness, pastoral, and colonial urban spaces – highlights how these settings tacitly communicate that New Zealand is culturally European. Nevertheless, the problematic cultural legacies of colonialism still haunt these novels. The way in which the narratives resolve these issues reveals that hegemonic New Zealand identity is reliant on a dehistoricised view of settlement and therefore perpetually vulnerable to the intrusion of Māori memory.

This is the first of three parts in the first of three planned novels, collectively called The Great Plains Trilogy, which takes place between 1841 and 1845. Set against such historical events as the Battle of Plum Creek and the Texas Council House Fight, Part One follows Lock (a.k.a. Aidan Plainfield) in 1841, whose wife and daughter were killed by Comanches during the Victoria raid of 1840. Since the raid, Lock has left his life behind, surviving alone in the Great Plains. One morning he discovers that Comanches have stolen his horse, and he sets off to recover it. Along the way, he meets Mr. Pendleton, an Englishman who has been injured by Comanches, and Raymond Wales, a thief who has been mysteriously left to hang in the middle of the woods. Mr. Pendleton and Raymond Wales, each of whom have their own mysterious motivations, join Lock on his journey. / Department of English

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Lille III, 1980. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [292]-316).

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Lille III, 1980. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [292]-316).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1942. / Lithoprinted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-87).

Thesis--University of Chicago, 1931. / "Private edition, distributes by the University of Chicago libraries." Lithographed.

Inaug. Diss.--Heidelberg. / Bibliography: p. 132-136.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also in a digital version from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.