NEW ZEALAND FICTION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 47, 17 May 1940, Page 23

NEW ZEALAND FICTION

A HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND FICTION: From 1862 to the PresentTime, with Some Account of its Relation to the National Life and Character. By E. M. Smith. A. H. and A. W. Reed. AVE we any standards of critiH cism? What interest do we take in our own writers? How are they influenced by our attitude? Is there a healthy growth of national literature? Miss Smith’s is our first book on the subject, and opens with a chapter giving the author’s reasons for undertaking the study. She writes: "T undertook this study. of New Zealand fiction at first because the idea of delving into the past attracted me, particularly as no one else had studied seriously this aspect of New Zealand’s past. But, as I continued my reading, I found that a wider significance was opening out before me. Each pamphlet,’ novelette, or story, no matter how small its value as regards pure literature, had something to offer as enlightenment upon the character of New Zealand people, their social and political background, their reaction to their new surroundings and their gradually changing habits of thought." In the pages that follow, it is this wider significance that chiefly concerns the writer. She is not concerned with literary evaluation nor with literary criticism in any ordinary sense. As the title indicates, it is her purpose to investigate any connection between our fiction and the life of the country. To do this successfully is a difficult task. It requires a thorough knowledge not only of New Zealand fiction but of our social, economic and _ political history. The main handicap to such a study is the absence of any existing account of New Zealand fiction. In this respect Miss Smith started from scratch. Apart from brief and, on the whole, uncritical reviews appearing in the newspaper and periodical press, there has been almost no published criticism of our native writers. The exceptions, of course, are such authors as Samuel Butler and Katherine Mansfield who attained fame outside New Zealand, There was not even a list to tell her what fiction had been published in New Zealand. The compilation of a bibliography was her first task. This is included in the book and it alone justifies publication. Very real credit must be given to Miss Smith for~ her pioneering work. All that she has written is well worth reading, full of stimulating suggestion, interesting to readers and to writers, useful to teachers and to all students of our national life and literature. Having said that it is no discredit to the author to add that the book in several respects falls short of its purpose. She calls it "A History of New Zealand Fiction..." A more correct title would have been "Some Aspects of New Zealand Fiction." Only fourteen pages are devoted to the actual historical development. The other chapters are mere essays on different

aspects such as " The Maori in Fiction," "Utopias and Satires,’ ‘" Children’s Books," and " Women Writers." All these are interesting in themselves and well worth reading, but they hardly accompe= lish the author’s proclaimed purpose of throwing light on our social and historical development. The bibliography itself would have been better arranged for this purpose if it had been chronological instead of alphabetical, and furnished with an index, Failure to do this suggests too little appreciation of the very nature of history -the relative sequence of events. Miss Smith’s theme is that our fiction offers "enlightenment upon the character of New Zealanders, their sccial and political background, their reaction to new surroundings and their gradually changing habit of thought." To prove this it is necessary to show each story against the background of contemporary events, All Miss Smith succeeds in doing ‘is to give us a few piecemeal glimpses without presenting a comprehensive picture of change and development. However, despite such defects, which were defects only in view of the book’s title, it deserves the warmest praise. It has broken entirely new ground, thrown out many stimulating suggestions, and collected a mass of information. It will surprises most people to discover just how much fiction has been published in this country. The bare list of titles covers twenty pages. The fact that such a serious study of literature can be published in New Zealand shows, I hope, that we are beginning to take a real interest in our own writers. And by real interest I don’t mean unthinking approval of things New Zealand because they are New Zealand, but a serious and critical interest, examining faults as well as virtues. In a chapter headed "Influence of Criticism of Fiction" Miss Smith has some pertinent remarks. She writes: "One of the great hindrances to the growth of a fine New Zealand literature has been not only the lack of an interested reading public, but also, what goes hand in hand with stich indifference, the lack of good constructive criticism." (Broadcast by John Harris from 4YA Dunedin).