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Item Der Streit um Christa Wolf : eine Untersuchung ihrer Rolle als Geheimer Informator der Stasi, als Mittelpunkt des Literaturstreits und als Autorin des Romans, Der geteilte Himmel : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in German at Massey University(Massey University, 1997) McGhie, Judith Karen1990 saw the beginning of the 'Literaturstreit' (the Literary Controversy) in East and West Germany. The 'Literaturstreit' was sparked off by the publication of Christa Wolf's short narrative Was bleibt in June 1990. Wolf's insistence that the narrative had been written back in 1979, when she was under Stasi surveillance, and that she had revised it in 1989 prior to publication, brought a barrage of criticism from prominent critics from all over the world. The 'Literaturstreit' was further fired by the publication of the Stasi files in 1993, which revealed Christa Wolf's involvement with the Stasi. In the first part of this thesis the Stasi files are investigated in order to determine the nature of the information given to the Stasi by Christa Wolf and to establish her actual involvement with them. In order to establish a picture of her character at the time in which she was recruited by the Stasi, the first chapter examines two curricula vitae written by herself and letters, reports and assessments regarding Christa Wolf written by colleagues and Stasi agents. The second chapter takes a close look at the actual process used by the Stasi to recruit Wolf as a "Secret Informer". It is my intention in the second part of this thesis to compare the picture of Christa Wolf seen in the Stasi files with the picture of her established in her narrative Der geteilte Himmel and with the picture of her which emerges through the criticisms levelled at her during the 'Literaturstreit'. Chapter Three outlines the major issues of the 'Literaturstreit' and events leading to it and summarizes the main critical arguments against Christa Wolf during this time. The focus of chapter Four is an examination of Christa Wolf's novel Der geteilte Himmel. published in 1963. The reason behind the choice of this novel is that it is the literary work which was published shortly after Christa Wolfs involvement with the Stasi and was presumably written - at least in part - while she was still officially in their employ. It is concluded that Christa Wolf is not the naive or self-consumed person portrayed in the Stasi files who is afraid to express her beliefs and make judgements. She appears to have felt obliged to work for the Stasi due to the position that she held at the time, but she may also have seen it as an opportunity for her to gain insight into the real situation in the party and in its institutions. The comparison between the Christa Wolf as portrayed in the Stasi files, the Christa Wolf as seen by the critics in the 'Literaturstreit' and the Christa Wolf who expresses herself through the literary text is revealing. However, despite the differences - legitimate or otherwise - that emerge, her faith in the real values of true Socialism remains constant.Item Sir Walter Scott's templar construct : a study of contemporary influences on historical perceptions : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University, Extramural, New Zealand(Massey University, 2017) Woodger, Jane HelenSir Walter Scott was a writer of historical fiction, but how accurate are his portrayals? The novels Ivanhoe and Talisman both feature Templars as the antagonists. Scott’s works display he had a fundamental knowledge of the Order and their fall. However, the novels are fiction, and the accuracy of some of the author’s depictions are questionable. As a result, the novels are more representative of events and thinking of the early nineteenth century than any other period. The main theme in both novels is the importance of unity and illustrating the destructive nature of any division. The protagonists unify under the banner of King Richard and the Templars pursue a course of independence. Scott’s works also helped to formulate notions of Scottish identity, Freemasonry (and their alleged forbearers the Templars) and Victorian behaviours. However, Scott’s image is only one of a long history of Templars featuring in literature over the centuries. Like Scott, the previous renditions of the Templars are more illustrations of the contemporary than historical accounts. One matter for unease in the early 1800s was religion and Catholic Emancipation. Scott was not a tolerant man when it came to the extremism of Christians, especially Catholics. The Templars are the ultimate fanatics during the Crusades, and Scott’s portrayal is rather scathing. His condemnation extends to Catholicism in general and is present in his characterisation of other men of religion in the novels. However, Scott was a writer of fictions set in history, and their sole purpose was the entertainment of the reader.Item Kate Chopin as feminist : subverting the French andocentric influence : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in English at Massey University(Massey University, 1998) Le Marquand, Jane NicoleAs nineteenth century woman taking the pen, Kate Chopin ran the risk of becoming overcome by a patriarchal literary tradition, of losing herself as female writer. And doubly so, in turning to male mentor Guy de Maupassant, himself so entrenched in the androcentric dictates of this tradition, for creative inspiration. Ironically, however, it is in the very act of Maupassantian emulation that Chopin's feminist subversivesness lies. In the creation of her short stories, appropriation becomes reappropriation. Patriarchal literary traditions become tools in the very act of their own subversion, as androcentric means meet resoundingly feminist ends. And as the technical strength of Maupassantian influence grows, so too does the effectiveness of the subversive message carried therein. The Poesque form of Maupassant, his unobtrusive, amoral style, his despondent, pessimistic philosophy, all come together in the work of Chopin, but her result epitomises the victory of feminist subversive survival. And it is a victory not only read but also felt as Chopin's focus shifts, under the guidance of Maupassant, from lengthy expositions of the externalities of female experience to increasingly concentrated and deeply insightful psychological journeys of womanhood. Feelings and emotional responses come to take precedence over action; overt feminist treatise is replaced by the subtlely effective "voice couvert" - the hidden voice of feminism. Thus, Chopin disrupts the discourse of patriarchy from within, simultaneously subscribing to and subverting Maupassant's male-centred perspective. She swims against the currents of tradition, maintaining her individuality and identity as woman writer even as she speaks of the despair and hopelessness this condition brings. The French androcentric influence is overturned.Item A consideration of the social commentary within D.H. Lawrence's novel The rainbow : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University(Massey University, 1971) Miller, Raymond PD.H. Lawrence's critical essay "Why The Novel Matters" contains the personal claim: "Nothing is important but life... For this reason I am a novelist... The novel is the book of life." 1 D.H. Lawrence, "Why The Novel Matters" D.H. Lawrence. Selected Literary Criticism (1956), ed. Anthony Beal, Mercury Books, London. 1961. pp. 104, 105. This claim is elaborated upon in "Morality And The Novel": "The business of art is to reveal the relation between man and his circumambient universe at the living moment... If we think about it, we find that our life consists in this achieving of a pure relationship between ourselves and the living universe about us." 2 D.H. Lawrence, "Morality and The Novel" D.H. Lawrence. Selected Literary Criticism pp. 108, 109. Arnold Kettle, writing in An Introduction to the English Novel suggests that The Rainbow contains within it a manifestation of these assertions. He contends: "The search, the passionate, desperate search of the characters of The Rainbow is to achieve personal relationships which make them at one with the universe." 3 Arnold Kettle, An Introduction to the English Novel Volume II (1953) Hutchinson University Library, London. 1965. p. 109. He adds to this contention his conviction that this novel is firmly grounded in reality, that within The Rainbow Lawrence is concerned with "actual human social issues". 4 ibid., p. 111. Some of these issues he then indicates: " ...there is the whole question of the relationship between work and personality; there is an examination of the social set-up of Cossethay and Beldover, the position of the squire and the vicar and the schoolmaster; there is the problem of industrialism, the significance of the canal and the railways and the pits; there is a great deal and from many points of view about the English educational system; there is the question of the impact of the English Midlands on the Polish émigrés; above all there is all that is implied in the phrase 'the emancipation of women'." 5Item The construction of Maori, Melanesian and Aboriginal peoples in the writings of Jean Devanny : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University(Massey University, 1998) Wilde, LindaHistorical constructions of racial otherness have legacies which endure to the present. The analysis of the discursive practices of the past helps to understand the present tenacious investment in notions of racial difference. This thesis examines the construction of Maori, Melanesian and Aboriginal peoples in the writings of Jean Devanny. Western texts which are informed by the [impossible] need to become indigenous, attempt to incorporate the indigenous character as an "other-within". Where no conflict regarding indigenisation exists, such tension is minimised and the indigene remains a more distant other. In Devanny's New Zealand novels, the attempt to incorporate Maori as "one of us" is subverted by essentialist constructions which assign to them a fixed, irreducible otherness. In the Australian text, racial difference is acknowledged and deployed to challenge the prejudice which such difference generates. Additionally, this text offers an exploration of the colonial processes which assign a group identity on the basis of racial difference.Item Images and visions of society in the selected fiction of three New Zealand writers : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy at Massey University(Massey University, 1981) Cox, Shelagh FrancesImages and visions of New Zealand society, as they appear in selected works of fiction by John A. Lee, Frank Sargeson and Robin Hyde, are the prime concern of the thesis. The fiction selected for analysis broadly encompasses the decade 1930 to 1940. The dominant image is of New Zealand as the respectable society. However, Lee, Sargeson and Hyde emotionally reject the bourgeois-puritan world they portray in their fiction; all three writers seek alternative societies in which the human qualities they see as denied in bourgeois-puritan life can find expression. The world of the dispossessed, a world seen particularly clearly in the light of the deprivation of the Depression, plays a large part in the fictional images cast by each writer; sometimes it is depicted as a world separated from the respectable society, sometimes it is depicted as a world inevitably locked into the dominant and respectable way of life. However, none of the three writers can find an imaginative resting-place in the world of the dispossessed as an alternative way of life. Furthermore, the writers cannot extend their images of society as they experience it into a Utopian vision of an ideal society which is attainable within the existing social structure. The failure to create a practicable alternative persists in spite of a powerful interest, shared by all three writers, in the social world as they feel it ought to be as well as in the social world as it is. In their quest for alternatives, two of the three writers create visions of potential societies, that is of societies seen as lying beyond the boundaries of the existing social structure. These are not realisable Utopias, as they would be if they were practicable alternatives; instead, they are wish-fulfilment Utopias. In other words they are compensatory in that they embody values repressed in orthodox society. The analytical approach adopted in the thesis consistently views both images and visions of the writers' imagined worlds as either direct or indirect portrayals of the New Zealand society to which the writers belong and which, in the end, shapes their fictional creations. Ultimately, it is argued, the writers' Utopias, like their images of existing society, lack the imaginative and social strength to stand on their own.Item Jane Austen : lessons in "ladyhood" for both ladies and gentlemen of nineteenth-century England and beyond : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand(Massey University, 2010) Lagorio, Loretta AnneAusten took up the literary challenge and wrote within the tight parameters set by the prevailing male society. She was able to portray her heroines as ideals of “ladyhood”, she rejected skewed masculine values unfavourable to women prevalent during her time. Her heroines discover feminine self-awareness, they have travelled the path of fundamental growth and maturation. Admired in her own century as having “nothing doctrinaire” in her work and ‘no trace of a woman’s mission’ (Parrish, p.370) in the hindsight of one hundred and fifty years; it is important to recognise both her teaching intent and her concern with female development, indeed, it is impossible not to recognise her “pondered intent” in relation to social and political issues generally that was eclipsed by earlier hegemonies.