Challenging Discourses in Allen Curnow's Poetry‪.‬

As literary critic and anthologist, Allen Curnow established a direction for the New Zealand poetic canon that continues to influence the way we read his poetry. Curnow's approach, encapsulated perhaps most lucidly in his introduction to the 1945 Caxton poetry anthology, provoked what Elizabeth Caffin (1) describes as 'primarily a generational conflict' in the 1950s between Curnow and the older, established 'Auckland' poets, and Baxter (2) and his 'Wellington group' of poets. Yet, despite resistance from that younger wave of New Zealand critics and writers, decades later Curnow was still publishing overseas, with some critics promoting him as an international poet. After more than half a century, Curnow's poetic and literary critical influence continues to provoke debate and research; the theme of, and response to the Association of New Zealand Literature's 1996 conference on 'Curnow, Caxton and the Canon' is proof in itself. My own contribution to that conference focuses particularly on sites of ideological struggle in some of Curnow's early poetry, and is part of a larger doctoral thesis which examines subversive elements in Allen Curnow's writings, including his drama, literary criticism, and the light and satiric verse written under various noms de plume.