On an Isle Called Rotoroa, and indeed the complete trilogy
of books that make up The Sound of Broken Voices is first and foremost a
memoir.
Definition of memoir
noun - a historical account or biography written
from personal knowledge or special sources: in 1924 she published a short
memoir of her husband
This work falls under the postmodern banner, as a piece of
Gay Literature, although this is due mainly to the fact that the narrator of
the story is gay, not because it is a gay story.
Gay literature has become a powerful voice in very recent
years and is making a mark as a distinctive form of cultural expression in the
world. Historically, writers of gay
literature have traditionally been shunned, and
rebuked. They have been arrested,
charged and convicted in obscenity trials around the world. They have been labelled and protested about,
as deviants and perverts. They have
been forced to write in coded
fashions. Gay literature for many years,
in many corners of the world, has been censored, banned, burned or destroyed,
and punishable by prison, or incarceration in mental hospitals.
It is theoretically correct to look at gay
literature under the wider umbrella of post-colonialism, in the context that
homosexuals (and homosexual writers) have for centuries have been
disenfranchised members of society, disadvantaged and discriminated
against. In my writing I show the
differences in pre-law reform New Zealand and post-law reform.
My work also falls under that category (Postcolonialism)
as it offers a Pakeha (non-Maori) child’s perspective of growing up in
Postcolonial New Zealand, in stories that illustrate a context and environment
which is at times almost as colonial in its attitudes, as it is
post-colonial. To me perspective is a key feature of memoir
writing, and this must always be taken into account by the reader.
The role
The Salvation Army play in this work, is also reminiscent of the days of early
missionaries in early post-European Aotearoa-New Zealand.
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