Colonial literature

" Naturam expelles furca tamen usque recurret": exploring the ambiguity behind the notions of "savage" and" civilised" in Baudoux's colonial New Caledonia

by Karin Speedy

2006. Essays in French Literature, 43, pp. 217-235.

Print Culture and the Collective Maori Consciousness

by Lachy Paterson

Journal of New Zealand Literature, 18:2 (2010), pp. 105-129.

Although literacy and print were essential tools of the New Zealand colonial project ultimately designed to... more Although literacy and print were essential tools of the New Zealand colonial project ultimately designed to ‘amalgamate’ Māori into the modern Pākehā-dominated world, ironically they also helped in the evolution of a collective Māori consciousness. This collective sense of being manifested itself in such pan-Māori movements as the Kīngitanga, Kotahitanga and Te Aute College Students Association. Māori were not passive recipients of print culture, and each of these movements utilized newspapers as a means of disseminating their discourses. Utilizing aspects of Benedict Anderson’s theory on the role of print in the formation of national consciousness, this essay looks at how Pākehā-run newspapers assisted in the development of a collective Māori consciousness, and how each of these movements projected this identity in their own publications.