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Summary Of Frank Sargeson 's ' Conversation With My Uncle, Cats '

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You might have heard about Frank Sargeson many times, but never really had the opportunity to know more about him. In this text you will have the chance to learn about his contribution to New Zealand writing. Frank Sargeson was one of New Zealand’s most important short story writers. He was born in Hamilton on the 21st, March 1903. During his life he wanted to create a new way of writing, solely of New Zealand. He died in Auckland, the first of March of 1982. Like Katherine Mansfield, who was the first writer to use the modernist writing style, Sargeson was responsible for putting New Zealand’s literature on the world map. Because he was born during the time when New Zealanders was looking for its own identity as most Pakeha still considered England home, it was complicated for him to distinguish himself from them. My aim in this essay is to identify, analyse and critique the similarities and differences of four Frank Sargeson’s short stories: ‘Conversation with my Uncle, Cats by the Tail, A Piece of Yellow Soap and Chaucerian’. There are lots of things that intrigued me about Sargeson such as, his use of anecdotes as short stories, how he uses simple words to achieve a breathtaking level of complexity in his stories or the fact that he used a plebeian language in his stories, but what interested me the most about him was why did he never mention himself in almost any of his workings. In fact, famous writers usually dedicated a book to themselves, instead he

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