Title: The New Zealand Novel 1860-1965

Author: Joan Stevens

Publication details: Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd, 1966

Digital publication kindly authorised by: Sylvia Johnston

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

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The New Zealand Novel 1860-1965

A. Major Matters of Content

A. Major Matters of Content

Theme: What material of thought, feeling, or human experience is explored by the novel as a whole? What is the controlling intention? What attitude to life is revealed, and is it a responsible one? Is the theme truthfully felt, and observed with a genuine personal vision? (For instance, what is the theme of Macbeth? The plot tells of how Macbeth murdered Duncan, and the consequences of the deed, but what is the theme? What is the theme of King Lear?)

Plot: This is the skeleton of a novel, for the persons and events must be inter-related in some organised way. "Amusement art" has usually only a plot; the fiction of "art proper" usually has a plot which also conveys a theme. Not all novels have a plot for their page 132 framework, but if there is a plot, consider these matters:—Is it a single-line plot, or are there sub-plots, or parallel plots? If so, how are these co-ordinated? Does the plot carry the theme adequately? Does it function independently of character, or as a product of it? Has the author had recourse to mere accident for his machinery? (If so, is this by design, as in Hardy?) If there is no plot, why not? What framework has been provided instead?

Background and Subject: Often a novel will have an interest arising from its subject. This is obvious in historical novels, and in those set in unfamiliar environments of any kind. The important question then is, how far are such interests absorbed into the fabric of the story? Are they touristy excrescences or open propaganda? Similarly, ideas have no place in a novel except as a function of character or temperament; a novel is not a textbook.

In all these matters of content, watch for intelligence and emotional range. Fine literature does not offer appeasement; it "entertains" in the highest sense, challenging assumptions, disturbing complacency, and widening sympathy; it has an expansive effect upon our apprehension of life.