Keri Hulme, The Bone People

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Following the book’s award of the “Pegasus Prize for Maori Literature”, C.K. Stead notoriously stated: “

The Bone People

is a novel by a Pakehah which has won an award intended for a Maori” (Stead, 1985: 104). Arguably, however, Keri Hulme’s achievement in this Booker prizewinning novel is in unsettling such clear and oppositional distinctions of race. As Stead also understood, in her tale of three characters trying to overcome their painful memories, Hulme centralizes human conditions that cut across man-made boundaries: “It is about love and identity. The love and the violence have a common source” (Stead, 104). Hulme eradicates notions of any racial homogeneity, since all three protagonists are hybrid in their origins. Kerewin is mostly European and one eighth Maori, but…

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Citation: Dowson, Jane. "The Bone People". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 January 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1423, accessed 28 March 2024.]

1423 The Bone People 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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