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John Sebastian Dennison (born 28 May 1978) is a New Zealand poet, as well as a poetry scholar who has published on the poetry of New Zealand poet James K. Baxter.
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John Sebastian Dennison (born 28 May 1978) is a New Zealand poet, as well as a poetry scholar who has published on the poetry of New Zealand poet James K. Baxter.
Dennison began performing poetry in Dunedin, New Zealand, during his time there in 2003–2007. He performed his distinct yet Baxteresque performance poetry at all of the local poetry performance venues: the Arc Café, the Port Chalmers Hotel (The Tunnel), and the Dunedin Public Library. While preferring the orality of performance, a few poems were published in student magazine, The Critic. His poems frequently interlace the gravity of biblical imagery with the banalities of modern existence, forcing their confrontation and overcoming any simple binary interpretations. This is evident in his poems, Retail Therapy and Fool's Repair.[ citation needed ]
In "Ko te Pakeha te teina: Baxter's cross-cultural poetry", Dennison explores "the potential of Baxter's engagement to inform a radical understanding of Pakeha identity"—the theme of Dennison's Master of Arts dissertation at the University of Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand. Dennison seeks to overcome the interpretation of Baxter's engagement with te ao Māori in terms of a simplistic dichotomy between Māori and Pākehā; spiritual and rational; pre-modern and modern. In Baxter's later poetry, Dennison finds that Baxter's use of te ao Māori is not for the purposes of setting up an opposition to Pākehā culture, nor is it a simple model for Pākehā culture to emulate, but it functions to inspire a rethinking of what it is to be Pākehā. Instead of being defined by opposition or assimilation, Dennison's thesis is that Baxter was suggesting a reconfiguration of Pākehā identity, one shaped by the tuakana-teina (elder brother-younger brother) familial relationship.
In April 2007, Dennison was awarded the highest value scholarship from the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission. The scholarships awarded by the New Zealand Government were embroiled in controversy, when Opposition MPs criticised the award of $96,000 for the study of bogans. Dennison's scholarship was awarded to fund his doctoral research at St Andrews University, Scotland, looking at the ways in which Heaney's poetry addresses political conflict in Northern Ireland. Dennison's research is for the purpose of considering Seamus Heaney's poetry and its social implications.
In 2015, Dennison published his first volume of poetry, 'Otherwise'. It was published simultaneously by Carcanet in the United Kingdom and Auckland University Press in New Zealand. [1] Noted New Zealand poet and critic, Vincent O'Sullivan, said of the poems that "they remind you, as good poetry does, that fashion and easy assumptions are drab stuff in the face of the real thing". [2] With help from Creative New Zealand, Dennison toured the United Kingdom in March 2015 to promote 'Otherwise', which included a joint poetry reading with former Archbishop Rowan Williams. [3]
New Zealand literature is literature, both oral and written, produced by the people of New Zealand. It often deals with New Zealand themes, people or places, is written predominantly in New Zealand English, and features Māori culture and the use of the Māori language. Before the arrival and settlement of Europeans in New Zealand in the 19th century, Māori culture had a strong oral tradition. Early European settlers wrote about their experiences travelling and exploring New Zealand. The concept of a "New Zealand literature", as distinct from English literature, did not originate until the 20th century, when authors began exploring themes of landscape, isolation, and the emerging New Zealand national identity. Māori writers became more prominent in the latter half of the 20th century, and Māori language and culture have become an increasingly important part of New Zealand literature.
James Keir Baxter was a New Zealand poet and playwright. He was also known as an activist for the preservation of Māori culture. He is one of New Zealand's most well-known and controversial literary figures. He was a prolific writer who produced numerous poems, plays and articles in his short life, and was regarded as the preeminent writer of his generation. He suffered from alcoholism until the late 1950s. He converted to Catholicism and established a controversial commune at Jerusalem, New Zealand, in 1969. He was married to writer Jacquie Sturm.
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