W endt, A lbert

Abstract

Albert Wendt is the leading anglophone writer from the South Pacific, not merely for being the first Islander to publish a novel ( Sons for the Return Home , 1973), but also for his prolific output of stories, novels, poems, drama, and artwork. Wendt is also important for his essays (notably “Towards a New Oceania,” 1976b) and his support for young writers. Concurrent with the Pacific‐wide movement toward political independence from the 1960s on, Wendt's output has engaged with broad postcolonial themes (Frantz Fanon's problematic of the “native intellectual,” V. S. Naipaul's traumatized mimicry, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's satire of corrupted nationalism). Critics have noted his mix of activist anger with existentialist despair, leavened with poetic symbol. His work has been translated into several languages, adapted into two feature films ( Sons for the Return Home and Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree) , and he is now the subject of a documentary film, The New Oceania: Albert Wendt, Writer (2005). He has been awarded numerous prizes, an honorary doctorate, and is a Companion of the Order of New Zealand.