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Has files: NoSubject: search.filters.subject.360201 Creative writing (incl. scriptwriting)

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    Part 1. Critical essay : Reconciling the Self – A Journey Through Memory in Annie Ernaux’s A Girl’s Story. Part 2. Creative essays : Let It Be a First Step : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing at Massey University, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 7th October 2027
    (Massey University, 2025) O'Sullivan, Fiona Therese
    This thesis has two parts, a critical examination of the French writer Annie Ernaux with a particular focus on her nonfiction work, A Girl’s Story, and a creative which comprises a collection of essays that explore childhood memories and the formative influence of childhood experiences on our adult selves.
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    Tickling the toi-toi : setting and metaphor in prose : a critical and creative thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 27th May 2028
    (Massey University, 2025) Carmody, Lorraine Ann
    This thesis has two components: the creative component, which is my collection of short stories, and a critical component, which explores setting and metaphor through an analysis of Janet Frame’s novel Owls Do Cry. The critical component of the thesis examines Frame’s use of setting and its role in complementing metaphor. It examines how multi-layered and descriptive details of Aotearoa’s landscape, historical time, and social milieu contribute to the novel’s realism and enhances its verisimilitude. And it investigates how this realism of setting underpins and complements metaphor. Research shows that metaphor is grounded in the real world. This is because humans are fundamentally metaphorical beings. As such, metaphor is not just a characteristic of language but is part of our conceptual system. My own fiction explores the use of setting and its role as a vehicle for metaphor. The stories seek to employ settings that are multi-layered and include descriptive details of the New Zealand environment. This is to enhance the realism and verisimilitude of the stories and to facilitate metaphor.
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    Living rivers : an ecopoetics of mutuality and flow : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing at Massey University, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 2nd May 2028
    (Massey University, 2025) Water, Esther
    This Master’s thesis examines relationships with rivers in order to explore the porosity between our shared, animate lifeworlds. It asks how language and the praxis of ecopoiesis can be used to acknowledge this relationship and explores how an ethic of care, gratitude, reciprocity and respect contributes to it. Situated within ecocriticism, and drawing on ecofeminist critical theory, this thesis uses both critical and creative enquiry to dwell in the following questions: What is my relationship with rivers? How can language and literature be used to reveal mutualities between rivers and humans? How does my desire for whitewater kayaking and re-creation help or hinder rivers? What do New Zealand’s laws and policies offer in the way of protecting the health of rivers? Is a rights-based framing of rivers enough? What does a kinship approach offer? What do rivers teach us? And importantly - what does a river want? The critical portion of the thesis uses a literature review to explore ecofeminist critical theory and embodied enquiry, and examines the interrelated theories of ecocriticism, ecopoetics and ecopoiesis. It delves into worlding and contrasts rights-based framings with a kinship approach. It investigates a grammar of animacy and enquires into the history and strengths of the lyric essay – the chosen form for five of the six creative pieces which follow the critical enquiry. Overall, I argue that the praxis of ecopoiesis - the conscious practice of being with and alongside the living world and beholding this through language - both illuminates and amplifies the value and importance of our relationships with the living world. In a time increasingly riven by difference, to be-held by and be-hold the living world, to re-cover and re-learn connections and to embrace a grammar of animacy is one way of building stories of care.
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    Not all angels : an ecofeminist reading of dualism, domination and rebellion within The Hunger Games : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of Creative Writing at Massey University, Albany, Aotearoa New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 17th February 2027.
    (Massey University, 2025) Clark, Brittany
    This thesis is comprised of two sections: a critical section analysing the young adult, speculative novel ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins, through the lens of ecofeminist theory, and the initial 24’600 words of a 60,000 word novel of the same genre entitled: ‘Above Ground’. Both sections explore the young, female protagonist and her relationship with individualism, dualism, rebellion, nature, and the dominance that presents itself alongside these themes. In the critical portion of the thesis, I outline the concepts of speculative fiction, ecofeminist theory, western dualisms such as the Nature vs Reason dualism, and the Angel in the eco system construct. I utilise these concepts in my close reading and literary criticism of The Hun ger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins by analysing where they are present or could be observed within the novel. I then continue this close reading through an examination of the novel through an ecofeminist lens. I draw from the work of theorists such as Val Plumwood, Greta Gaard, Carol J. Adams, and Patrick D. Murphy to support my argument that The Hunger Games protagonist Katniss Everdeen, challenges dualistic structures of dominance that link the oppression of women with the exploitation of nature, within the narrative. By rejecting the "Angel in the Ecosystem" trope, Katniss reveals how both dominance and environmental manipulation are interlinked. This highlights the interconnectedness of dualism, othering, ecological abuses, and societal control. In applying ecofeminist theory to a contemporary novel, I aim to develop my own understanding and implementation of ecofeminist themes within my creative work ‘Above Ground’.
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    A female text in chorus : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Creative Writing at Massey University, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 27th May 2027
    (Massey University, 2025) Carruthers, Emma
    Two voices. Many questions. A call, a refrain, a response. Is the language with which we write masculine in nature due to its birth through patriarchal means? Can it become feminine? How might women writers represent and reinvent themselves in text, or reclaim the very concept of text itself? My critical essay examines Irish writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s book A Ghost in the Throat (2021) through the lens of Hélène Cixous’ formative feminist article, “The Laugh of the Medusa” (1975), in which she presents a call to arms for women to write themselves into text in distinctly female ways. As these women’s voices call and respond across the decades, a female text is written and defined, examined and redefined, and both Cixous and Ní Ghríofa offer crucial contributions to literature that are distinctly female in plight and song. My own voice joins the chorus in the creative portion of my thesis – a memoir that weaves together scenes from the decade I spent raising my children in rural Guatemala and the first months in which I return to New Zealand after my husband leaves us. It explores the shock, grief and shift of identity that arises after he leaves, as I navigate the seas of solo motherhood and seek a new sense of home. Together, the creative and critical aspects of this thesis examine the rising of the female voice from the margins of literature, and the discovery that our voices in fact sing together in one chorus.
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    Resistance, healing and empowerment through autobiographical therapeutic performance–– 愛，媽媽 (Love, Mum) : a solo matrilineal memoir and autoethnographic inquiry on Chinese womanhood and ‘The good woman’ ideal : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing at Massey University, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 30 July 2027.
    (Massey University, 2024) Lam, Cynthia Hiu Ying
    My research is an autoethnographic inquiry that employs creative and critical methodologies to examine the question: How does the process of writing and performing one’s life experiences and trauma act as a form of resistance to the dominant ‘good woman’ narrative, leading to personal healing, empowerment and transformation? Through the creation of my one-woman show, 愛，媽媽 (Love, Mum), a matrilineal memoir about three generations of Chinese women, I investigate how the creative process involving the writing, rehearsing and performance of my play can become a form of resistance and counter-storying against the dominant ‘good woman’ narrative, leading to personal healing and empowerment. I begin by discussing the historical context of the virtuous Chinese woman, and present research by scholars who demonstrate that depression in women contains a gendered lens, resulting from the socio-cultural pressures of living up to the ‘good woman’ ideal. My analysis uses the methodological framework of autobiographical/autoethnographic therapeutic performance (ATP). This is a method that focuses on the working through of personal traumatic material through writing and performance. My research utilises a transdisciplinary praxis, combining both arts-based and psychoanalytic theories and practice related to trauma recovery and the healing processes of ATP. My investigation is autoethnographic and deeply personal as my own life experience and creative process is used to answer my research question, as well as shining a light on the socio-cultural structures we live in. Employing a mixture of creative practice, personal reflection, theoretical examination, and a close reading of my play script and performance, I demonstrate how the creative process I went through has led to a form of personal healing and transformation, with the potential to impact and engage with the wider community.
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    Unsettler poets : lyric voice and imagery in contemporary poetry of Pākehā entitlement, identity and belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Master of Creative Writing, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa - Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 24th March 2028.
    (Massey University, 2024) Easthope, Nicola
    Given the deep reach of colonial empire across the world over the past 400 years, and specifically, into Aotearoa since 1769, there is substantial debate about whether non-Māori authors have the right to write Māori characters, knowledge, worldviews and experiences in fiction and poetry, and, if at all, how? As a Pākehā poet descended from British missionaries, farmers and teachers, I ask how lyric voice and imagery can be used to explore our connections with tangata whenua and the whenua we live on. I come to this subject with the assumption that there is an ethical imperative for Pākehā poets to honestly examine and ‘unsettle’ our inherited cultural and material privilege when writing about our sense of identity and belonging in Aotearoa. This thesis uses two methods of investigation: a critical portion with two interlinked essays, and a creative portion comprised of a collection of poetry. The critical portion firstly investigates how five Pākehā poets—Dinah Hawken, Cilla McQueen, Catherine Delahunty, Makyla Curtis and Michaela Keeble—include Māori narrative voices and/or perspectives when addressing relationships and injustices (historical and present day) in their lyric works. To what extent do these poets demonstrate the importance of cultural respect rather than appropriation in their poems? Secondly, in a closer reading of poems selected from Dinah Hawken’s There is no harbour and Makyla Curtis’ Apertures, I analyse how lyric voice(s) and imagery are used as strategies to address the violent, dispossessive processes of settler colonialism, and the ancestral colonial legacies that have shaped each poet’s sense of identity, privilege and belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand. I consider how these poems might begin to unsettle the dominant psychological paradigm of Pākehā privilege and entitlement that allows the impacts of colonisation to continue. How do their lyric poems affect a shift in perception and a call to action? In addition, how does the work of Hawken and Curtis align with postcolonial ecocritical theory, and contribute to the conceptual decolonisation of Aotearoa New Zealand? The investigations within my critical essay inform and inspire my creative component; a collection of poetry titled Inter | mission, which explores my roles as a Pākehā teacher, writer and activist in Aotearoa, from my ancestral settler histories to my own life experiences. I develop lyric poetic voice(s) and imagery as strategies to reflect on and reckon with the lives of three generations of my Scottish settler-colonial ancestors, spanning late 19th century Kelso, Scotland to early 20th century Bolivia, Whanganui, and Te Urewera, where my great grandparents and great aunt and uncle were Presbyterian ministers, missionaries, and teachers. My poems contemplate intercultural relationships, past and present, and the many faces of power and privilege involved in ‘settling down’ and ‘changing hearts and minds’ in lands changed by colonisation.
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    Movement of the people : the second great Māori migration, Rogernomics and other influences behind my creative work “Exodus.” : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing in Fiction at Massey University, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 31st July 2026
    (Massey University, 2024) Kaa, Jasmine
    My thesis consists of 2 parts: The first part is a critical essay that explores the key historical, political and creative influences that inspired the genesis and development of my creative work. As the supporting document to my creative work, this essay provides a platform for me to wananga and engage with the ideas and insights that has gone into my creative process. My essay also gets to the heart of why my story spoke to me, and my intentions behind writing it. It also answers my research question: how has the social impact of neoliberalism, in particular Māori unemployment, been depicted in films made by Māori filmmakers? The second part of my thesis is a creative work that takes the form of a television screenplay. Te Aroha, is the fourth episode of Exodus, a limited series that I am developing. The overall theme of Exodus is the intergenerational impact of government policies on one Māori whanau from 1961 to 2023. Te Aroha, is set in the mid-1990s and features a younger generation of the whānau. The main focus of the episode explores the social impact neo-liberal government policies of the 1990s had on whānau Māori, in particular sole parents on a benefit.
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    ‘Ongoing loss, a wounding dislocation’ displacement and trauma in New Zealand literature : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Creative Writing at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 29th August 2026
    (Massey University, 2024) Pe'A, Lyle
    This thesis comprises two sections: a critical section in which the concepts of trauma and displacement are examined and analysed in the ways in which they are depicted in New Zealand literature, and a creative section which consists of a novella entitled The Strong Ones written with those same themes in mind. In the critical section, the notion that there are types of displacement, ranging from the large-scale to the small, that cause subsequent forms of trauma to emerge as a consequence is explored, and this notion is given creative expression in the following section. The critical section utilises three key literary texts with which to further study this link between displacement and trauma in New Zealand literature. Those texts are Once Were Warriors, Auē, and The Savage Coloniser Book. I read each of these texts with the Developmental-Ecological model of Urie Bronfenbrenner in mind, the better to have some manner of gauging specific societal levels of disruption and pathology. I incorporate theorists such as Peter Adey with his work on The Handbook of Displacement, Anna Westin’s Embodied Trauma and Healing: Critical conversations on the Concept of Health, and Susie O’Brien’s What the World Might Look Like: Decolonial stories of resilience and refusal, among others to help frame the discussion. These theorists concur that trauma tends to go on far beyond the initial causative event. I argue that most if not all trauma in the key texts I have selected eventuates as a result of Bronfenbrenner’s macro level of disruption. In other words, that wider, larger contexts for displacement historically and observably tend to trickle down to the small, narrower contexts and the people who live within them. The creative portion of my thesis consists of the novella entitled The Strong Ones. This novella follows the life of one-character nicknamed Hapuka, a twenty something Pasifika who is employed by the local abattoir, and his struggle to regain some semblance of forward momentum following a defining, traumatic event in his past. The themes of displacement and a kind of ongoing, reverberating suffering are fleshed out in various ways, alongside a cast of characters representing different aspects of the New Zealand/South Island working-class.
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    Into the ecoregion : Robert Sullivan’s The meadowlands and the nature/culture divide : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Creative Writing at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 20th September 2026
    (Massey University, 2024) Gilbert, Adam Kane
    This thesis interrogates the role of nature/culture dualism in ecological and environmental creative nonfiction through a critical analysis of Robert Sullivan’s The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures on the Edge of New York City and a creative component titled The Knitted Sheep. Both the critical and creative sections take the view that the concept of nature/culture dualism in creative nonfiction must first be problematized through a locally scaled, ecoregional lens to truly comprehend ecological and environmental issues at a global scale. Through my reading of The Meadowlands in the critical portion of this thesis, I explore how Sullivan’s attention to the overlap between the natural and the human cultural aspects of the Meadowlands problematises the commonly accepted nature/culture dualism inherent in the natural world and how this problematization aids new ways of understanding the nature/culture relationships in our urban environments. I examine the problematization of nature/culture dualism in The Meadowlands through a dispute brought about by the work of two critical theorists: Timothy Morton’s Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics and Christien L. Marran’s Ecology Without Culture: Aesthetics for a Toxic World. Morton argues that extant Romantic ideas of nature must be abolished in favour of ecocriticism that embraces cultural forms of ecology. Marran counters Morton’s view, calling instead for more binding, trophic forms of ecocriticism that favour aesthetic perspectives of the human and the more-than-human world. I argue that by problematising the nature/culture dualism found at the urban fringe, rather than leaning too heavily on either cultural or nature tropes, ecological and environmental creative nonfiction can open new, imaginative spaces for understanding the nature/culture relationships in our urban environments. In the creative portion of my thesis, The Knitted Sheep probes the broader question of nature/culture relationships in ecological and environmental creative nonfiction by exploring my personal story of learning to make my clothes over the past twelve years. The Knitted Sheep is specifically focused on the moral and environmental concerns surrounding the use of wool and cotton. I problematize the concept of nature/culture dualism and local/global perspectives surrounding these contentious materials by focusing on my experiences with crafting in local settings while maintaining a critical perspective on the textile and fashion industries in a more generalized and global sense.