A distinguished poet, novelist, and short story writer, Ian Wedde is also New Zealand’s foremost contemporary cultural theorist and an accomplished essayist. Wedde has stated that he writes in order to understand something, and his literary oeuvre can be characterised as a ceaseless interrogation of some of the enduring problematics of human experience, such as the nature of aesthetic representation, the location of the self within time and place, and the expression of love, both as sexual desire and as paternal affection. Whether discussing colonial art, international modernism, ethnic relations, cultural policy, or tourism, Wedde keeps in play the idea of culture shock as a surprised encounter, “crisis and annexation” (Making Ends Meet 274). In both his poetics and his politics he has developed the comprehensive persona of a skeptical optimist, tuned into the cultural...
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Citation: Lawn, Jennifer. "Ian Wedde". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4645, accessed 09 June 2026.]
