ABSTRACT
In 1984, Keri Hulme’s Maori novel The Bone People won the Pegasus Prize for Literature established by Mobil Corporation. Since then, The Bone People has been frequently read in college courses on postcolonial and/or multicultural literature, and its appeal in the classroom and in lists of required reading for doctoral qualification is only seconded by its promotion, even today, in major bookstores, where, for example, a multiplex Barnes & Noble in Manhattan’s Union Square included it in its recommended readings for Christmas 2000. Started in 1977, the Pegasus Prize is awarded, the publishers remark on the back cover, “to distinguished works from countries whose literature too rarely receives international recognition,” and is chosen by a group of scholars, reportedly outside of Mobil’s oversight, in a country first selected by elite members of the U.S. literary establishment like Paul Engle (then-director of the celebrated Iowa Writers’ Workshop) and William Jay Smith (former chair of Columbia University’s writers’ program), among others.1
