This paper explores a number of assumptions about the factors of literary production, and in particular examines the way in which the physical environment, the land, acts in new world writing resisting the assumptions of the invading culture. Included are some ideas on the structural analysis of literature, with the author analysing the dialectical model implicit in most structural analyses of literature, and proposing a new three-part productive structure which is constantly seeking balance between its parts: land, individuals and culture.