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Crete 1941
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Crete 1941
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Crete 1941 is Aotearoa New Zealand's epic of nationhood and of MΔori citizenship attained by the valour and sacrifices of the 28th (MΔori) Battalion. It is also the epic of the Cretan resistance to the German occupation of Crete.
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Description
Australia has 'The Great South Land', South Africa has 'Shaka Zulu', Argentina has the gaucho epic 'Martin Fierro', and Chile has 'La Araucana' as its national poem. Now New Zealand has Crete 1941, an epic poem about the New Zealand-led defence of Crete during the Battle of Crete between 20 May and 1 June 1941.
Crete 1941 is the only epic long poem in English since Derek Walcott's 'Omeros', with the entry of the 28th (MΔori) Battalion as an active combat force providing the culmination of the poem. As geopolitical tensions rise in the Pacific today, it's timely to look back to when New Zealand last went to war and defended another small nation - Greece - on its last redoubt, in a battle that ended in a Dunkirk-style evacuation.
More than just a war story, Crete 1941 brings women back into the historic struggle for Crete. The poem is a life-changing reflection on the virtue of good small nations, on the contribution of indigenous peoples such as MΔori and Cretans to international developments, and on the fragility that both peace and its disruptors share.
'In no way glorifying the violence of the Greek campaign and the battle of Crete,' said poet Bernard Cadogan, 'this epic places conflict right at the heart of our desire for peace, as well as our capacity to reason, will and love. Unlike other "war stories", women are central to this poem, never absent.'
Cadogan asks: 'Why did New Zealanders fight for the oldest site of a European palace state: the site of the myth of the labyrinth and Minotaur? What was the monster in the palace that we fought? What other ways are there of dealing with such a menace?'
'This is a radical poem, not a fuddy-duddy poem,' said Cadogan. 'It is not composed in Spenserian stanzas as a conservative nostalgia trip or whimsy, but as a deliberate act of decolonisation and reparation for Edmund Spenser and our own premier Alfred Domett's dreadfully racist "Ranolf and Amohia".'
'Crete 1941 does this in the spirit of Wu Ming's New Italian Epic, inverting Ferrara, Cork, colonial Wellington.... Someone has said Crete 1941 has put intellect and heart back into New Zealand verse; in a way this is true.'
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780473587895
Publisher: Tuwhiri Project Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 29 October 2021
Imprint: Tuwhiri Project Ltd
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 8.0mm
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 229.0mm
Weight: 218g
Pages: 156
About the Author
Born in New Zealand in 1961, Bernard Cadogan is an accomplished poet, philosopher and historian. Since 1996, he has worked as a political advisor and speech writer, in particular as the NZ prime minister's foreign affairs adviser, and has been a consultant to the New Zealand treasury since 2011. He was appointed an honorary adviser to the MΔori king in 2015. He is especially interested in the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, John Rawls and Charles Taylor, and his current focus is on postcolonial thought, the formation of empires, and the resilience, relevance and viability of small nation states. Bernard holds a DPhil from Oxford University on the political thought, constitutionalism and racial policy of Sir George Grey (1812-98) in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He lives in the Cherwell Valley, near Oxford, with his wife Jacqueline and their three children.
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