Pencarrow

This submission is in two parts. The first, an exegesis, sets my creative work in its literary, stylistic and social context. The second and main part of this submission is the first draft of a novel, Pencarrow, which I wrote over the course of last year. The exegesis explores ideas of differing perspectives on grief and loss, shifting cultural and gender perspectives of the late 1960’s New Zealand, the idea of banishment and a unification of ancient beliefs of both Māori and Pakeha. It also discusses how these ideas are linked with an overarching emergence of identity and growth for the main characters. Explored in the exegesis is the presence from that ‘Other Place,’ in Pencarrow and how it is used to achieve some unity and depth to all of the ideas listed above. Discussed also is my a voyage of discovery as writer, gradually departing from my original intention to use magic realism as a tool for storytelling and moving toward an allegorical use of metaphor within a broader framework of what in literary fields is termed realism. The novel is set in New Zealand, predominantly in the year 1969, but with flashbacks to the previous year and earlier era’s in New Zealand’s history. The novel is written in third person subjective with shifting points of view