Introduction to the author of "New Zealand Literature·Kerry Hume·Key Figures"|Summary of Contents|Appreciation of Works
Introduction to the Author Kerry Hume (1947—) New Zealand's outstanding contemporary writer A Maori female writer, she was born and raised in Mullaki, Christchurch, New Zealand. Her ancestors are Maori, Orkney, Scotland, and Lancashire, England. She has worked as a chef, a television director, a law student, a tobacco picker, a wool spinner, etc. She is now a professional writer. Carey Hume began writing in the 1960s and emerged in the literary world in the 1970s. His main works include the poetry and prose collection "In Silence" (1982), the novel "Key Figures" (1984) and the short story collection "The Wind Eaters" ( 1986) and poems and short stories published in many literary magazines. Many of her works have been broadcast on radio or screened on television, and some have been translated into Swedish, Japanese and other languages. Carey Hume won the T. Awamed Short Story Prize in 1973, the Catherine Mansfield Short Story Prize in 1975, the Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago in 1977, and the She won the Trust Fund Award for Maori writing in English in 1973, 1977 and 1979 respectively. She was also invited to participate in art festivals in Hawaii and Adelaide, Australia. "The Backbone" is a rare masterpiece in the history of New Zealand literature. It was adapted from the first short story the author started writing when he was 18 years old. The novel went through several revisions and took 12 years to complete. In 1978 After the manuscript was completed in 2007, it was sent to several publishing houses, but was rejected as heresy. Finally, it was published by the "Spillar" publishing house co-founded by New Zealand women's groups. The novel was sold out within a few weeks of its release. It has been republished many times since then. The demand for the book "Key Figures" in the sparsely populated New Zealand has become a miracle in the New Zealand literary world in recent years. In the year when the novel was published, it won the New Zealand Novel Award and the Mobile Pegasus Award for Maori literature. In 2008, it also won the British Literary Creation Award, which is rarely awarded to foreign works. The success of "Key Figures" marked that the development of Maori literature has entered a new stage. Carey Hume's works mainly deal with the emotional alienation between Maori and his own people, reflecting the Maori mentality between two cultural traditions and the painful psychology of being unable to accept one. At the same time, he also focuses on depicting the struggle against poverty. and violence, against incarceration, being discriminated against or being protected, characterize New Zealand's world of apartheid, economic inequality, and social injustice. Carey Hume is good at purely psychological descriptions, and is good at drawing rich nourishment from exploring the national characteristics of history, tribes and myths. The novel concept and incisive language are the main features of her works. The reason why "Key Figures" is so popular among readers is that Especially Maori readers are favored because the novel is rooted in the soil of the nation and based on New Zealand society. It analyzes the relationship between people with the characteristics of New Zealand society - men, women, and children, the three main characters of the novel. It is the heterogeneity of society, but they are also Maori, mixed-race female, and white. This is the characteristic of New Zealand society. The novel explores many current situations in today's society through the narration of the three of them coming together, separating, and rejoining. and problems. The relationship between the three of them is also a microcosm of the relationship between people in New Zealand society. The happy ending of the novel represents the good wishes of the vast number of kind-hearted people who hope that the two nations can live in harmony.
Summary of Contents This novel has three important characters. The first is the female painter Clevin Holmes, who is a descendant of Maori and white people, but she believes that "in view of blood, body and inheritance, I "I am a person who is one-eighth Maori, but in terms of heart, spirit and taste, I am a full Maori." Kelewen is a woman with a wide range of interests, from painting to music, from history to... He knows everything about religion, fishing to playing chess, cooking to wine, and he is master in everything. She is confident and proud, and considers herself a cold woman; she has a strong personality, is moody, but has rich emotions. Climbing the pagoda of an artist did not bring her happiness and satisfaction. On the contrary, it deepened her alienation from her relatives and made her feel emptiness and loneliness in her heart. . She designed and built a tower-shaped house by herself in a remote coastal village in the South Island. Drawing on traditional Maori art and her own imagination, she built a spiral staircase in the tower and drew a double spiral on the ground. She lives in isolation. , the second important character is Joe, a middle-aged Maori worker who is kind-hearted and compassionate, but has a bad temper and a melancholic temperament. Not long after the death of his first child, he rescued and adopted a parent who was tragically in a shipwreck. Simon, a white boy who was killed, soon lost his wife and another child to the flu. Joe was extremely sad and depressed, and his temper became even more violent. He often missed his dead wife and children. The third important person is Simon. The death of his parents left trauma in his young mind. After being adopted by Joe, he gained the warmth of his family. The death of Joe's wife made matters worse and carved new scars in his heart. , he was very sad about this and often said that he wanted to find his mother. He is usually taciturn and his behavior is puzzling. Sometimes he is cute and funny, sometimes he is troublesome, aggressive and illegal. Joe was often punished at school, which troubled him. Joe was acting out of sympathy.
Secondly, in order to compensate for the pain of losing his wife and children, he always took care of Simon. Sometimes he was full of motherly tenderness towards Simon, and sometimes he whipped him roughly. He wandered over to Kelewen's tower house, and Kelewin took him in for one night. Joe came to thank him for this. The two spoke Maori and felt a sense of intimacy with each other. They began to communicate. Simon liked Kelewen and sometimes came to her tower room without authorization, which also increased her contact with Joe. Taking the opportunity, they each reminisced about the past in their hometown, and talked about their nostalgia for their relatives in their hometown and their inner loneliness and pain. Joe often played chess, played and sang, walked, and fished with Kelewen. They also took their children to drive together and go on vacation. Kelewen helped take care of Simon and developed an instinctive maternal instinct towards Simon. Simon would also act coquettishly towards her and be very close to her. In this way, these three men, women, and children of different colors came together out of their own needs. However, due to the differences in their personalities and experiences, Clewin was overwhelmed by Joe's disgust with Simon's rough behavior; Joe's disgust with Clewin's confidence and aloofness, as well as their different experiences, differences and Simon in their sexual relationships. All these troubles caused these three people to hurt each other's feelings intentionally or unintentionally. The three injured people were involved in a spiral emotional entanglement. Sometimes they were centripetal and helped each other, and sometimes they were... They are separated from each other and hurt each other. Simon also occasionally behaves violently towards Kelvin, which makes Kelvin feel sad. Eventually all this led to their separation; Clevin went on a trip, Joe was arrested and imprisoned, and Simon fell ill and was admitted to the hospital. During the period of separation, the three of them experienced painful physical and mental tests and recalled the time when they were together. Clewin later became seriously ill. She also visited Simon in the hospital and Joe in prison. In the end, the three men get back together. Their relationship was not very harmonious at first, but by the end of the book, they understand each other and live in harmony.
Work Appreciation "The Backbone" is an excellent work by Maori writers who have been trying to integrate their own national culture and European culture. It is also Carey Hume's debut novel. The success of the novel marks the 70th The development of English Maori literature emerged in the 1990s and entered a new stage. The novel follows the main line of the acquaintance, interaction, reunion, separation, and reunion of the three main characters. It depicts the racial relations, family relations and relationships between people in New Zealand society, as the title of the book suggests. Their relationship is "backbone" general and socially representative. The author mainly expresses some problems about the emotional alienation between Maori and his own people in Kelewen. They have lost contact with their Maori hometown. They are connected by nostalgia for their hometown, reminiscing about the past and expressing their feelings to each other. They all believe that this is the most precious part of their way of life that they have lost. This sense of loss brings physical and mental pain to Kelewen. The pain of love is present throughout the book, and the novel also touches on issues such as homosexuality, crime, and violence in today's society. The theme reflected in "Key Figures" is exactly the theme that Maori writers have strived to express since the 1980s and the artistic origin of their creations. Carey Hume's unique artistic approach portrays this theme more brilliantly and successfully than any of her compatriots. The author has an extraordinary beginning; he describes the relaxed mood and good feelings of the three protagonists walking on the road, hinting at the happy ending of the story. The spiral ladder in the tower house and the double spiral painted on the floor symbolize the complex relationship between the main characters. Emotional entanglements. At first, they lived together out of necessity and desire, like a dance circle dancing around the same base point. As a result, the dance circle became a vortex that separated them and trapped them in isolation and despair. The spiral has a profound influence on the whole book. The meaning, conception and form are all crucial. The author consciously arranged the description of character relationships and the development of the plot in a spiral-like structure. In a broad sense, human society and the relationship between people are like a spiral. Stretching ad infinitum, in the narrow sense of their three-person relationship, the spiral returns to its starting point. This descriptive structure brings vitality to the details of the novel; it is also one of the most direct and in-depth ways for the author to absorb Maori culture. She wrote in the book: "There are two spirals carved on the floor under her (Klewin) feet. Your eyes follow one of them, circle after circle, to the center. At this time, you will be surprised to find that another spiral starts from here, leading your eyes to the outdoors... Old people will find that this is exactly the same. It was the inspiration caused by their skillful carving of double helices on the straight fern trees..." The novel inherits the tradition of realism in thought, but the technique used is modernist. The author uses "stream of consciousness" and symbolism to strengthen the theme. He does not pay attention to the plot of the characters, but only focuses on revealing the inner world of the characters. The novel progresses slowly and has no suspense, but the content is deep and extensive, and the surface descriptions are rich and colorful, and the ink is scattered. Youzhi, there are not many characters in the book, but the characterizations of fictional and real characters in the book are all integrated into the plot with incisive and pure psychological analysis. The relationships and inner activities of the characters are enriched through dialogue and thoughts, and their emotions are It is completed with a fiery inner monologue, and the many conversations between Joe and his late wife are written in a sad, sad and tear-jerking way. This kind of description is very rare in New Zealand novels. The language of the novel is also extremely rich. From military art to dandelions used in cooking, from music to fishing, the specialized vocabulary and idioms describing various interests make the novel full of interest, which shows the author's deep language ability and wide range of knowledge. Degree.