Katherine Mansfield’s Defense Of The Maori

Katherine Mansfield is one of New Zealand’s most important writers of the 20^thcentury.She lived at a time of increased Western colonial expansion and experienced different lives in both the colony and the suzerain.In her works,Mansfield focuses on New Zealand’s colonial history and the colonial experiences of its native inhabitants,and reflects on Western colonial discourse,which establishes more firmly her identity as a postcolonial writer.In the colonial context,the native inhabitants—the Maori,suffered severe colonial oppression.Influenced by Western colonial discourse,they were portrayed as a savage and barbarous race,becoming the repressed and defined Other in the colonial society.Maori culture was also gradually replaced by white culture and thus their cultural identity was threatened.Aware of the predicament faced by the Maori and Maori culture,Mansfield defends the Maori in her writings and tries to find ways for them to reconstruct their cultural identity.Following the theoretical formulations of Edward W.Said,this thesis will analyse how Mansfield defends the Maori and deconstructs Western colonial discourse from three aspects:her portrayal of the predicament of the Maori,her subversion of the stereotyped images of the Maori and her recognition of Maori culture.This thesis argues that Mansfield’s writing of the colonial oppression that the Maori live with exhibits her sympathy for them and her critique of European colonial expansion.And by subverting the stereotyped Maori images to illustrate the noble qualities of the Maori,she dissolves the binary opposition of civilization and savagery.Finally,Mansfield’s celebration and recognition of Maori culture contribute to the Maori’s construction of cultural identity.By defending the otherized Maori and marginalized Maori culture,Mansfield raises her question about Western centralism and cultural hegemony.