New book offers insight into the 'forgotten literature' of our region

Aug 14, 2003

One of the difficulties in teaching 'new' and 'regional' literatures is that global markets favour the mass production of 'classics' (meaning the works of Europe and North America).

In the context of Australia and New Zealand at least, this has the effect of perpetuating a Eurocentric or 'First World' view of cultural values, according to Associate Professor Paul Sharrad of the English Studies Program at the University of Wollongong.

"'Minority' books are not kept in print or circulated widely and students are denied access to the full and exciting range of literature the modern world has to offer," he said.

Professor Sharrad hopes he has played some small part in redressing this situation through the release of the world's first scholarly book study of Pacific writer, Albert Wendt, entitled Circling the Void: Albert Wendt and Pacific Literature.

Wendt is Professor of Literature at Auckland University and has had a distinguished career as promoter of literary expression in Oceania, as a theorist of modern Pacific cultural identity and decolonisation, and as a writer of stories, novels and verse. Two of his works (Sons for the Return Home and Flying Fox in a FreedomTree) have been made into feature films and he has just published an epic novel of Samoan life, The Mango's Kiss.

His play, The Songmaker's Chair will be staged in Auckland this September. Born in Samoa, he saw the transition to Independence and charts the struggle to maintain indigenous traditions in the face of colonial cultural invasion and contemporary dispersion of Islanders around the globe. Part of this process is the complex taking on of modern habits and ideas, creating new selves, both cut off from origins and resisting complete assimilation to Western ways.

Professor Sharrad said Wendt's work blends Pacific mythologies, social satire, the existentialism of Camus, popular culture and the literary experiment of Borges and Kundera. He is also outspoken against the social inequities facing indigenous and migrant populations arising from the colonial past.

The University of Wollongong has a long history of teaching postcolonial literatures and Professor Sharrad has worked predominantly in Pacific and Indian writing in English.

"Scholarly work supporting the study of 'non mainstream' texts is an important part of changing the face of contemporary culture to reflect its actual diversity," Professor Sharrad said.

He hopes that his book will equip students and encourage teachers and publishers to look more seriously at Albert Wendt and the many other writers of the Pacific region.

The book is published by Manchester University Press in association with Auckland University Press. Its cover features the 'Black Rainbow' print series by Maori artist Ralph Hotere protesting nuclear testing in the Pacific.

For further information contact Associate Professor Paul Sharrad on (02) 4221 4757.

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128