Abstract
'Black Prism' is a social realist novel that reflects on and explores some of Post-Colonial New Zealand’s social and political problems, interrogating these issues, without prescribing definitive answers.
Opening with the shocking violence of a home invasion, the work sees the brutal collision of the two protagonists and their contrasting worlds. It is the confrontation of Carla Hughes and Ben Pomana, victim and perpetrator, Pakeha and Maori, privileged and disadvantaged, upstanding citizen and gangster.
In the bleak aftermath of this event, the novel traces in parallel, the lives of Carla and Ben as they each try to make sense of their new reality. It is many years later that their lives once more intersect, again with startling consequences - each character ironically finding a measure of redemption through the other.
'Black Prism Unravelled' is an exegesis exploring the difficulties encountered by the author in the craft of this novel, in particular her search for authenticity. [NOTE: The novel, Black Prism, is permanently embargoed by the author]
