Becoming New Zealand Writers: Margaret Mahy and The Tricksters ’ Harry Hamilton

Abstract

Critics have discussed the New Zealandness of Margaret Mahy’s work, but little attention has been given to how her fiction reveals the process of acquiring or realizing a New Zealand literary imagination. Outlining Mahy’s path to become a ‘New Zealand writer,’ the article explores protagonist Harry Hamilton’s negotiation of that same passage in The Tricksters (1986). It argues that Harry’s conquering of the powerful literary influences of Western (specifically Northern) literary tradition, symbolized by the three trickster brothers, enables her to become an author who can write authentically from her own internalised New Zealand perspective.