Abstract:
This thesis is an examination of New Zealand performing arts from 1862 to 1940 via case studies of drama, music, and dance, performed both domestically and internationally. I argue that in the creation and reception of popular culture notions of modern New Zealand were shaped and understood. Highlighting New Zealand’s embodied culture of the past provides a new interpretation of the development of New Zealand’s cultural history and adds an unexplored dimension in understanding the relationships between Māori and Pākehā throughout the late nineteenth and into the early twentieth centuries. The performance events discussed here reflect the cultural hybridity that developed in New Zealand. A strong thread running through this thesis is the belief that race and ethnicities are cultural constructions that have been manufactured through performance. A central question running through this thesis is: How have Māori and Pākehā been performed? By examining popular theatrical performances, the creators and performers, conventions and styles, the reception and contemporary interpretations, a history emerges that presents a new facet of understanding representations of New Zealand within a framework of transnational performance and cultural studies. Writing New Zealand history through performance, this thesis demonstrates how corporeal expression, manifested in the performing arts, constructed layers of vibrant and visceral representations of this land and its people, domestically and internationally.
