Fiction and reality collide for graduate writers

15 May 2013

Fiction and reality collide for graduate writers

What do World War I nurses, indigenous people and biographical fiction have in common?

They are the topics three graduating Victoria University students have focused on for the past three years as part of their PhD research at the International Institute of Modern Letters.

Wellington writer and editor Lawrence Patchett examined the field of biographical fiction, a genre that blends biography and fiction. He was particularly interested in the period of early colonial settlement in New Zealand and in stories that looked at the inner life of writers such as Katherine Mansfield and Henry James.

“I found the best fiction was when the story didn’t pretend to tell the whole truth, but acknowledged that it is just one version of the truth,” says Lawrence.

To test this theory, the graduand used a variety of narrative techniques in his collection of 12 short stories, I Got His Blood On Me, which was published by Victoria University Press in 2012.

Dunedin writer and lecturer Maxine Alterio turned her literary gaze onto the emotional legacy of the First World War for nurses, tracing the experiences of two New Zealand nurses working in Egypt and France for her novel, Lives We Leave Behind, which was published by Penguin last year.

Running in tandem was Maxine’s research project which focused on WWI nurses from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, England and the US who made sense of their often tragic experiences by writing their memoirs.

“The research project underpinned the novel and helped me bring to life the complexities of military nursing,” says Maxine, whose interest in WWI nurses was fostered by a story about 10 New Zealand nurses who died when their ship was hit by a German U-Boat in 1915.

“I found that nurses who formed emotional connections with patients, friends and colleagues coped better with the relentless work, worry and weariness. Those who remained hopeful about the future were also more likely to fare better after the war.”

Maxine, who teaches part-time at Otago Polytechnic, is about to start work on her third novel.

For Wellington writer and tutor Tina Makereti, telling the real story of the Moriori in a fictional context was the focus of her PhD study and her novel Rēkohu Story, due to be published by Random House in early 2014.

“Many people still believe inaccurate stories about Moriori and their place in New Zealand’s history,” says Tina. “Because not everyone reads academic texts or historical books, the complexity of what really happened hasn’t filtered through to everyone. I thought fiction might make the histories more accessible.”

Her research also focused on two indigenous writers—New Zealander Patricia Grace and Australian Kim Scott—who use fiction as an important tool in the reclamation of histories and identities. “They present a point of view which hasn’t been presented before. It’s what I want to do with my writing.”

Tina, who is of Māori, Moriori and Pākehā descent, weaved together three distinct narratives to tell the story of a young man who died during the invasion of the Chatham Islands, a Moriori slave and his mistress who ran away together in 1882, and a contemporary woman who discovers a hidden family history.

Lawrence, Maxine and Tina will graduate today, 15 May at 6pm, each with a PhD in Creative Writing.

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