The Post-Colonial Noble Savage: A Study of Witi Ihimaera's Fiction

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the appropriation and reworking of the western literary myth of the Noble Eco-Savage in the fiction of Māori writer Witi Ihimaera. The study of the functions of the adaptation of European myths in Māori writing is relatively unexplored terrain and the reworking of the myth of the Noble Eco- Savage in New Zealand indigenous fiction has attracted little critical attention. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part, entitled “The Colonial Noble Savage”, identifies western literary and ethnographic texts that contain representations of indigenous peoples as Noble Eco-Savages. The second part, entitled “The Postcolonial Noble Savage”, analyses the different literary responses to, uses of and rewritings of this western myth, as well as the particular stereotypes to which Ihimaera chooses to write back. It asks whether his work is merely a writing back in the sense of seeking to unmask naturalised stereotypes of indigenous peoples or whether it uses the myth of the Noble Savage as an agent of transformation. The thesis argues that Ihimaera’s Noble Savage is a Post-colonial Noble Savage, in the sense that it represents the reaction of an indigenous writer to the colonial Noble Savage, thus to the discourse of colonisation in general. Ihimaera’s Noble Savage interacts with the traditional colonial discourse by attempting to subvert it, rewriting the character of the Noble Savage from an indigenous perspective. This study offers a different perspective for analysing Māori fiction, which challenges the conventional culture-centred approach and suggests instead a textcentred reading—an interpretative strategy that uncovers previously ignored aspects of Ihimaera’s fiction and does justice to its complexity. In revealing the presence of western cultural references and literary traditions in Ihimaera’s fiction, the thesis does not aim to undermine the uniqueness of Māori literature. Rather, it suggests that these cross-cultural encounters and literary borrowings have produced rich and complex new outcomes.