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    Running amok : the diary of an hysteric : business education, the self, & other oxymorons : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Scott, Steven
    This thesis is a work of fiction and falls under the genre of hysterical realism. Hysterical realism seeks to subvert, disrupt, and resist the status quo by blending actual events with absurdist fiction. I am, therefore, making a conscious decision to write differently – and not present my doctoral thesis in the normal, accepted manner. The book that follows is presented as a reflective journal, an exercise in narrative therapy, being read to a therapist. The purpose of these diaries, or chapters, is to shine a spotlight directly on what I perceive are serious deficiencies within business education and, in particular, the MBA. I have constructed this narrative in the only way I know: using humour, integrating popular culture, and providing my own unique take on the world. And, yes, I am writing as the hysteric. I have done this, not because I am a fanboy of Lacan, but because I don’t actually have a choice - the truth is: I am the hysteric. Within this text, the narrator will meet and converse with a number of individuals. These minor characters should be read for what they are: twisted versions of me. They are Lacanian mirrors, placed at intervals, in which I pause to see if I can glimpse some shadow of truth/Self in the dysmorphic reflections. The story begins, is punctuated at intervals by, and ends with conversations between the narrator (me) and his therapist (myself). These have been included to provide a mirror (the analyst’s discourse) for his hysterical discourse. This allows me to view myself as a text (a mirror through which I can better understand not only business education but the Self). I have also included numerous footnotes, which also operate as a mirror (the discourse of the university), providing the requisite, and inescapable, academic ballast that keeps this thesis afloat. It is through considering these various looking glasses and smashing each in turn, that I hope to see the real reflected back in the multitude of sharp splinters that will, through the construction of this book, be reassembled into a far more palatable whole.
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    Illusions, transformations, and iterations : storytelling as fiction, image, artefact : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts, College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Richards, Jess
    This creative practice research project proposes that books may act as performative artefacts, and simultaneously discovers the narrative potential of fragmented fictional texts. The hybrid processes used during this research incorporate artistic practice and fiction writing. Throughout the duration of this project, there have been presentations of work across different modes – print publication, live art/performance, conference presentations, articles/essays, workshops, installations and readings. The most significant outcomes of the project are a small collection of physically transformed books, which stand as hybrid art/fiction artefacts. The reader/viewer is encouraged to performatively engage with the books by exploring what is visible, partially visible, and concealed. To spend time touching and reading words, whispers, silence.
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    Precarious girls : gender, class, and the New Zealand short story : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Allan, Tiffany
    This thesis seeks to explore experiences of precarity in New Zealand fiction through an analysis of short fiction by Tracey Slaughter and Alice Tawhai, and my own collection of short stories. The critical component of this thesis explores intersections of identity such as gender and culture that influence and at times compound experiences of precarity. Results of these intersections in the fiction of Slaughter and Tawhai are the decrease in hope and feelings of self worth for characters and subsequent acceptance of unequal and at times abusive relationships for women in the precariat, including a lowered perception of rights for these characters. Slaughter and Tawhai also portray the differing levels of power characters wield in differing settings, showing that differing intersections of identity can fluctuate in power depending on the social environment. My own fiction also explores experiences of precarity. Some of these stories explore in particular the experience of community within the precariat as an enabling and comforting device, and experiences of precarity for rural women, in particular the gender roles expected for financial stability. Other stories explore the experience of precarity for those who are trying to escape this part of society, and the prevalence of mental illness in the precariat and ways characters use to cope with it or to feel safe. The last stories in this collection address family and community within the precariat, and the strong bonds created within the precariat to increase feelings of comfort and hope.
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    Wayfinding Pasifikafuturism : an indigenous science fiction vision of the ocean in space : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Cole, Gina
    This thesis examines science fiction space stories written by Indigenous writers and asks how these texts look to the past while commenting on the present and providing transformative imaginaries of our existence as Indigenous peoples in the future. It also investigates how these texts challenge the inherent colonialism of the science fiction genre and its norm of the white, male, heteronormative, cisgender point of view. This thesis comprises two sections, creative and critical. Twenty percent provides the critical analyses and eighty percent makes up the creative section. The critical component is in two parts. The first part defines the specific point of view adopted in this thesis, which is that of science fiction literature written by Māori and Pasifika authors as the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific. This point of view is captured within the term I have developed and called, “Pasifikafuturism”, a theoretical construct that situates Oceanic science fiction in the afterlife of colonisation and seeks to move beyond postcolonialism to create Pacific conceptions of the future. Pasifikafuturism is located alongside other Alternative Futurisms with which it has commonalities, including Afrofuturism, Indigenous Futurism, Queer Indigenous Futurism, Chicanafuturism, Latinofuturism, and Africanfuturism. Pasifikafuturism is identified within the context of the Pacific Ocean and the ancestral practices and methodologies of wayfinding and waka building. The second part of the critical study comprises a close reading of two science fiction space stories written by Indigenous authors. The first is Witi Ihimaera’s space novella Dead of Night, a story about six people travelling through space to the end of the universe, or Te Kore. The second is Nnedi Okorafor’s novella Binti in which the titular protagonist, a young Indigenous woman from the Himba tribe in Namib, is the first person in her community to travel into space to attend an intergalactic university. In the creative portion of this thesis, Pasifikafuturism is explored imaginatively in an original novel titled Na Viro, which is shaped and informed by my critical research. Na Viro is a work of science fiction set in interstellar space and the Pacific. Tia, the protagonist in Na Viro, is a young Fijian woman who travels into space to rescue her sister from a whirlpool. This thesis argues that science fiction, and specifically space stories, can be used as a lens through which to examine the histories and ancestral knowledge of Indigenous peoples adversely impacted by colonialism; and as a way of reclaiming and re-growing Indigenous knowledge that has survived. Furthermore, I use Pacific wayfinding as a methodological framework to enable the envisioning of transformative futures in science fiction stories where our knowledges are centralised, privileged, and respected.
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    A va'ine approach to creative writing : the tīvaevae framework and the calabash breaker : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Creative Writing at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Kokaua-Balfour, Stacey
    This thesis explores an approach to creative writing embedded with an indigenous cultural framework from the Cook Islands. The tīvaevae framework, based around the process of constructing Cook Islands tīvaevae quilts, shapes both the critical and creative components of the thesis. The critical component explains how the tīvaevae framework is utilised and includes a discussion of an archetype called the calabash breaker, named after the poem of the same name by Selina Tusitala Marsh. The calabash breaker appears in different guises in both traditional and contemporary Moana narratives and can be recognised by her strong links to family, community and place, combined with tendency to rebel against the social conventions of her community. Typically, her insubordinate nature drives the narrative towards her ultimate act of disruption while also providing a method of social critique. Characters who share the traits of the calabash breaker are explored through a close reading of Witi Ihimaera’s novel Whale Rider (1987) and Sia Figiel’s novel The Girl in the Moon Circle (1996). In the creative component, a middle grade novel titled The Mōmoke’s Daughter, a Rarotongan girl named Kimiora from Porirua discovers she is the daughter of a mōmoke, a figure from Rarotongan cultural narratives. Kimiora and her friend return to the world of the mōmoke in the depths of te Moananui a Kiva, the Pacific Ocean. The book has a strong environmental concerns and explores what it means to be Indigenous to the Pacific while also part of a global community that is responsible for so much of the environmental destruction of ocean habitats. The novel uses the calabash breaker, expressed through the character of Kimiora, to explore Cook Islands ideas about identity, family, belonging, place and the role of mana tiaki (kaitiaki) of ocean environments.
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    A 'novel' approach to leadership development : using women's literary fiction to explore contemporary women's leadership issues : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Studies in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Martin, Lydia Anne
    The central aim of this thesis is to investigate how women’s literary fiction can be harnessed for the purpose of exploring contemporary women’s leadership issues. This thesis argues that literary fiction is a valuable source of interdisciplinary and ‘artful’ consciousness-raising material for proactively addressing at the interpersonal level a wide range of critical concerns related to women’s leadership experiences. Having identified a significant ‘gap’ in the extant literature – the underutilisation of women’s novels, short-stories and plays in leadership studies – this thesis adopts an interdisciplinary approach to demonstrate how literary works can be used to examine women’s contemporary leadership issues. For this research project I adopted an interpretive qualitative research paradigm informed by critical leadership studies and a multiplicity of feminist perspectives. I developed a systematic method for long listing and short listing appropriate texts and analysed selected works in response to a five-point conceptual framework of critical concerns arising from a review of the women and leadership literature. I also kept a reflective blog to track the iterative nature of the research process and to record my learning during this study. The findings demonstrate that women’s literary fiction offers a rich repository of thought-provoking illustrations of women’s leadership concerns, including gender binaries, power-play, socially constructed perceptions and gendered expectations, and women’s diverse range experiences as both leaders and followers. The extended analysis provides a number of in-depth examples and reflective questions, revealing myriad opportunities for critical theorising, illustrative analysis and critical reflection. Subsequently, this thesis argues that fictional stories are a viable and potentially transformative ‘artful’ intervention for addressing complex leadership issues concerned with gender within the context of women’s leadership development programmes. My recommendations for future studies include a focus on ethical leadership, the evaluation of participant ‘book club’ interventions and an extension of the reading lists to include more culturally relevant New Zealand authors. To my knowledge, there are no studies that utilise women’s literary fiction for the purpose of exploring contemporary women’s leadership concerns and questions. Consequently, my thesis makes an original contribution to the leadership and humanities field, as well as providing an innovative and creative product that can be used for critical and interdisciplinary approaches to women’s leadership development.
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    The social thesis and prose fiction of Roderick Finlayson : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1971) Muirhead, John
    This essay is a study of the inter-relationship of the social thesis and prose fiction of Roderick Finlayson. It will examine the themes which persist in his polemical articles, short stories and novels, the effect of his ethical stance on the aesthetics of his craft, and the degree to which that stance represents, in Allen Curnow's words, "some common problem of the imagination" in New Zealand literature and thought. Because much of the material used in this essay is rather inaccessible, I have felt it necessary to treat the articles and fiction in some detail, quoting extensively in the endeavour to convey the full range of Finlayson's thought and craft. Since they are of peripheral, rather than central importance to the arguments proposed in this account of Finlayson's work, I have not included discussion of his numerous writings for the School Publications Branch of the Department of Education. I should like to thank the following people for their assistance during the preparation of this thesis: —Dr. W.S. Broughton, who has been generous with his time, patience, and learning in the initiation and supervision of this study. —Professor R.G. Frean and other members of the English Department of Massey University for their interest and concern. —Miss E.M. Green, Mrs. M.D. Gwynn, and Miss L. Marsden of the Massey University Library; the reference librarians of the Palmerston North Public Library; and staff of the Alexander Turnbull, General Assembly, and National Libraries, Wellington, for their co-operation. —Mr. R.D. Finlayson of Weymouth, Manurewa, for his patient and kind response to my letters and queries, and the use of his records, manuscripts, and cuttings; and Mrs. Finlayson for the hospitality offered during my visit to Weymouth. —Mrs. Margaret Brogden, who typed this manuscript, and for whose help and sympathy I am very grateful.
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    "Drawing a daisy on a post-it" : expressions of the phenomenology of illness in literary fiction set in 1956 and the present day : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Master of Arts in Creative Writing, English and Media Studies at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2015) Wootton, Susan Ray
    This thesis explores representations of the experience of illness in literary fiction. It argues that the portrayal in literature of an imagined character's subjective experience of illness constitutes a phenomenological perspective on the illness experience, and that literary fiction's performance of a phenomenological approach offers important insights to a holistic understanding of illness. Section One is a critical essay which examines two contemporary literary texts by the light of recent scholarship in the areas of medical philosophy and medical sociology. A concern frequently expressed by writers in these areas is that the modern biomedical paradigm, while increasingly sophisticated in its science, risks neglecting its art, and that this, in turn, de-humanises medicine in a manner that is fundamentally harmful to the lived experience of illness. Modes of talking about illness which encompass subjective, phenomenological, experience offer a way to rectify this. I argue that creative fiction is therefore a powerful form in which to explore the lived experience of illness. I apply this notion to a close reading of two literary texts, one set in 1956 and one in the present day. By its very nature, however, literary fiction's power lies in its effects on the imagination, and is only clumsily explained by analytic argument. Thus Section Two of this thesis is a creative partner to the critical essay and aims to demonstrate, or perform, the thesis. This creative section is an extract from a novel called Strip, set in present day New Zealand and told from the perspectives of a mother and a father whose teenage daughter has a terminal illness.
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    From Aspiring to 'Paradise' : the South Island myth and its enemies : a critical and creative investigation into the deconstruction of Aotearoa's Lakes District : presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Creative Writing at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2014) Wilson, Annabel
    Poetry and film are artistic modes for representing, interpreting and evaluating our environment. Aotearoa’s poets have distilled the meanings we place on ‘places of the heart’ since the first oral histories and lyrics were composed. Kiwi filmmakers have also fixed their gaze on places layered with cultural significance, selecting Edens at various stages of the Fall as settings for their protagonists to mess about in. With New Zealand’s unique position as the last place on earth to be populated, the human response to this landscape is a significant aspect of the nation’s psyche, and the relationship between people and place remains an enduring motif in local writing and cinema. My research stems from an exploration of the poetic and on-screen representations of the Central Otago region as a cultural landscape generated by a variety of spectators. This paper takes an excursion into the high country of Te Wai Pounamu to see how two key places have been sighted in terms of the South Island myth. The first place to be framed is deep in the Matukituki valley. Here, the gaze of the nationalist era is epitomised by the ill-fated Aspiring film project masterminded by Brian Brake and scripted by James K. Baxter. The antithesis of their gaze can be seen in the ‘Paradise’ of Jane Campion’s post-feminist television mini-series Top of the Lake (2013). My interest is in the swing from Brake and Baxter’s romanticizing of Aotearoa’s ‘Lakes District’ to Campion’s brutalizing of it. How has the mythical South Island landscape been established and then fractured by these artists? These issues are also explored in my creative component, which draws upon my critical report in order to devise my own response to the South Island myth through a fictionalized journal / scrapbook entitled ‘Aspiring Daybook’.
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    Neoliberalism and social patterns : constructions of home and community in contemporary New Zealand fiction : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in English at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2007) Shaw, Kirsten Elizabeth
    Constructions of home, family and community as ways of belonging have been ongoing discourses in New Zealand. This thesis examines constructions of home and family in works of fiction by four contemporary New Zealand authors: Alice Tawhai, Charlotte Grimshaw, Witi Ihimaera and Damien Wilkins. It asks how the main sociological characteristics of the period are presented and performed through fiction. Through these characters and their situations these authors expose the social fantasy of contemporary New Zealand society: that of individual reflexive opportunity. The twentieth century has seen a changing social fabric with loosening of bonds and the increase of individualism. The New Zealand way of life is changing, with increasing interconnectedness of the world through globalisation. Neo-liberal ideology, itself a response to globalising effects, has exacerbated social fragmentation and income disparity. Neoliberalism, a retreat of the state from both financial control and support of individuals, presumes a logic of market-forces and rational choice based on the maximisation of opportunity. This has implications for the individual’s sense of self and ways of belonging as the New Zealand subject is increasingly premised on personal responsibility. This thesis looks at the economic and sociological analyses of neoliberalism and asks if they are confirmed in the fiction.