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Item The nation imagined : a critical study of nationhood and identity through the cover art of Indian speculative literature : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2024-11-26) Krishnamurthy, NikiteOver the past decade (2013–2023), India, the largest democracy in the world, has experienced a pronounced rise in religious nationalism, marked by its entrenchment in mainstream media, visual culture, and political rhetoric. This thesis examines the role of popular visual culture in shaping ideas of nationhood by focusing on the book cover art of Indian Speculative and Fantasy Fiction (ISFF). It argues that ISFF genre art functions as a visual discourse that not only mirrors but actively constructs and contests dominant narratives of Indian identity. Drawing upon Jacques Rancière’s aesthetics of politics and Roland Barthes’ semiotics, this study demonstrates how ISFF book covers encode visual themes—such as hyper-masculine portrayals of Hindu warrior-heroes, mythological iconography, and saffronised aesthetics—that reinforce nationalist myths of a unified, Hindu-centric “imagined community”. Through detailed visual analysis, the thesis reveals the ideological significance of these representations, exposing how they contribute to exclusionary conceptions of Indianness while simultaneously providing a platform to challenge hegemonic narratives. Specifically, it identifies tensions between religious nationalism, caste hierarchies, and the commodification of mythology in India’s contemporary political landscape. By situating these visual motifs within India’s broader visual and political history, the research highlights their capacity to naturalise historical revisionism and propagate militant masculinities tied to Hindu nationalist ideologies. This thesis makes an original contribution to the interdisciplinary study of visual culture and politics by elucidating how genre-specific visual discourse in ISFF reflects, mediates, and complicates contemporary identity politics in India. It offers a critical lens through which to understand how popular culture operates as an ideological apparatus that negotiates complex socio-political narratives within a globalising and increasingly polarised society.Item This bloody show : outside and inside the artist's body in performance and video work : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Harris, ClaireUtilising autobiographical content and her own body as medium and subject, the artist seeks to represent aspects of risk and self-harming without replicating or staging acts of self-harm. Drawing on writers Lea Vergine, Jennifer Doyle, Maggie Nelson and Amelia Jones, and artist Gina Pane’s performance work, this exegesis identifies points of contention in the production and reception of performative acts of self-harm. Beginning with installation and video works the artist creates tangential situations alluding to anticipation, depersonalization, and self-reflexivity in self-harm. Through this research the artist arrives at eggs as a fluid proxy for the body/self and for dynamics of anxiety in video and live performance works. Additional issues arising involve perceptions harm and risk; the “feminist performance art meets misogynous cinema” dynamic within this MFA work; and the double consciousness, self-management, and projection in being female subject, performer, and artist. This abstract is old now and not totally relevant.Item Pelagic states : beyond nomadic and oceanic practices : an exegesis written in partial completion of a PhD in Creative Practice at Massey University College of Creative Arts(Massey University, 2018) Trubridge, SamOceanographers have a name for that remote part of the ocean that is not connected to or defined by a coastline or sea-bed. This is the ‘pelagic zone’, where movement and operation occurs in a completely four-dimensional environment. My creative practice examines, occupies, and emerges from this condition, applying it across the spatial, technical, cultural, geographic, philosophical, and aesthetic layers across various works and processes. In the theatres, galleries, public spaces, dry deserts, and ocean spaces that I have worked in there is a pervasive liquidity and a pelagic nature that characterises all the states and forms that my works move through. This thesis argues that a fluid, mobile, and self-sufficient methodology of this kind is necessary in order to navigate the equally fluid landscapes of contemporary performance and culture, traversing diverse disciplinary boundaries, geographies, and modes of working in order to formulate a unique model for what is defined here as a pelagic practice. The ‘pelagic’ (from ancient Greek ‘pelagos’: of the open sea) is an adjective describing a complete, unboundaried liquidity. It is a term is often attached to species of ocean-going birds and fish, with little use outside of scientific texts, thus providing this research with an undefined space for discussion on creative practice, performance, and philosophy. It is also a term that suggests a proximity to and correlation with Pacific theorists and culture, allowing me to pay homage to this significant body of knowledge whilst avoiding appropriation of their specific cultural knowledge or viewpoints.--From OrientationItem Journeys into the ancient world : classical studies in New Zealand : new directions along ancient paths : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University(Massey University, 2003) Gordon, Derek RossThe post-X generation, bribed by the cool of hot branding, gives its lifeblood in sacrificial tribute to the global tycoon. Its ambassadors are compulsorily released into a labyrinth engineered by a corporate Daedalus, and stalked by a minotaur machined and designed by unit-production architects. Now however the children of post-X are mapping the co-ordinates and confronting the minotaur, finding ways to manipulate the maze and get through it, coming back to the light a transformed stronger human being. But the way is fraught. In my twenty-three years as a full-time performance storyteller, I have walked the mythologic path. I tell epics, drawing members of the audience into the story to become goddesses, heroes and lovers. During that time the subject Classical Studies has undergone a phenomenal ascendancy in secondary schools and universities, amounting to a red shift : a windfall for an epic teller. Why has it become so magnetic to so many young people, when alongside is the technocyber utilitarian culture they are expected to be expert in, a culture which can exert control at the expense of individual freedoms. The ancient world is simply hot. Reasons: it offers an iconography, self-insight, big ideas. In the Odyssey, passion and empowering experience through contact with men and women of strength and creative action. But there are further and swiftly-flowing undercurrents. I argue that by treading the stones of the ancient world, the youth generation is accessing an ancient, alternative universe. The Lord of the Rings and the Matrix movies both use mythic framework. Are the eighteen year olds of 2003 seeking a way through a socio-psychological matrix-labyrinth by using keys and threads gifted from the ancient world? Philosophers and kings and daring women from those times are causing excitement and expansion of consciousness amongst the young and their mentors. That world has perhaps provided them with magic talismans, translated into thought and inscribed on thread around a spool, and as we unwind this clew we are weaving a way through demons and labyrinth, also knowing love and rapture. These thoughts form the focus of this thesis.