The Settler's Plot is a fresh and engaging study of the relationship between literature and place in New Zealand. Drawing on an engrossing selection of documentary and literary sources, Alex Calder explores the places our writers have turned to most often - the beach, the farm, the bush, the suburb, "overseas" - and connects the history of Pakeha settlement to the way stories take shape in these settings. Europeans arrive on a beach, make markets, acquire property. How do their stories build fences or cross boundaries between Maori and Pakeha? Why do so many of our novels and poems set on farms and in suburbs lament a despoiled and soulless environment without shaking anyone's belief in progress? Why have Kiwi writers looking for their own culture headed for the metropolitan centres of the old world?
Through fascinating and unpredictable readings of some of our greatest literature - writers such as F E Maning and Herbert Guthrie-Smith are treated as central figures, while Mansfield, Sargeson, Curnow and Frame are viewed from new angles - Alex Calder investigates the often contradictory meanings that Pakeha have found in our most familiar settings, offering a whole new approach to the cultural history of this country.