Abstract
AT THE JAIPUR literary festival in January 2015, the
writer Eleanor Catton described New Zealand as a country
governed by ‘neoliberal, profit-obsessed, very shallow,
very money-hungry politicians who do not care about culture’.1
The comments generated much media controversy in her
homeland. Catton was denounced for her insolence, ingratitude,
and even traitory. Some right-wing pundits disparaged what
they saw as her politically illiterate use of the term ‘neoliberal’.
Her comments triggered a local version of a reactionary discourse
that regards the concept of neoliberalism as the paranoid creation
of left conspiracy theorists.
Citation
Counterfutures; Left Thought & Practice Aotearoa, 2016, 2 (2), pp. 193 - 202
Date
2016
Publisher
Counterfutures
http://counterfutures.nz/