From subject to device, history as myth in action : the evolution of event from mythic processes as revealed in Waterfront Dispute fiction

Abstract

This analysis of selected New Zealand works defends the evolving function of history as fiction-material. It is intended to establish that purpose and treatment alter, as time further separates the writing and the event. The general change is one of development from subject to device properties. In tracing history's evolving role and treatment in fiction, analysis identifies history's eventual source - shown, in fiction, to be mythic and subjectively conceptual.