Katabasis "Down Under" in the Novels of Margaret Mahy and Maurice Gee

Abstract

Two writers of fiction for young adults have dominated the New Zealand literary scene in the past few decades. Margaret Mahy and Maurice Gee are wellknown, both at home and abroad, for their intelligent, sensitive, and dramatic fantasy, historical, and science fiction novels, which bring exciting action to the shores of this small country in the Southern Pacific Ocean. New Zealand consists of three islands, and is located in the very far South. Along with Australia it is affectionately known as the Antipodes, or "Down Under." The first human inhabitants, Polynesians, are thought to have migrated to the islands in the thirteenth century, forming the seeds of what became the Maori culture. They called the islands Aotearoa, or Land of the Long White Cloud.