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Item 'Invincible summer' : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Creative Writing at Massey University, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Cush-Hunter, JeanitaWhy is silence considered to be golden? This Master of Creative writing thesis questions why so many women suffer in silence and dares to break that silence. The thesis examines the genre of the personal essay in a contemporary context and explores its relevance and utility for the expression of the stories of women’s suffering. The thesis consists of two sections, creative and critical, and has an eighty percent creative component and a twenty percent critical component. Invincible Summer is divided into two parts. The first part is titled ‘Concerto’ and consists of 8 personal essays. This section explores content and subject matter that is specifically about and, relevant to, my personal experiences with suffering as a woman including Anorexia nervosa, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Postpartum trauma and being the mother of a child with Autism. The second part is titled ‘Risoluto’ and it is structured around critical analysis of the communication of suffering experienced by other women writers including Ashleigh Young, Maggie O’Farrell, and Leslie Jamison. As a whole, but most directly in this essay, the thesis questions and investigates the criticisms leveled against the personal essay, particularly the accusations of solipsism, narrow scope, and sensationalism. The thesis employs a variety of approaches toward the personal essay in order to explore the diversity and flexibility of the genre as a form of autobiographical writing. These personal essays utilise different approaches to structure and are built around scenes from specific times in my life. The essays explore the use of patterns and connections through personal writing in a way that allows each essay to be effective as a stand-alone essay while also functioning as part of a whole through the interweaving of common themes and events. By taking this approach, I aimed to portray the essays as snapshots of unique moments in order to demonstrate how fragments of a life may be perceived as isolated incidents while still forming part of a whole cohesive picture. My purpose when creating this thesis was to demonstrate the versatility, power and accessibility of the personal essay for women who write about their suffering. In the creative component, I aimed to demonstrate the flexibility of the personal essay as a framework that is capable of supporting multiple stories from multiple stages in a writer’s life. In the critical component, I defend the personal essay’s place in a contemporary context and argue against specific criticisms in order to justify that self-disclosure is an acceptable and respectable form of communication.Item Attitudes to love and marriage in poetry by women of the Romantic Period : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Master of Arts in English at Massey University(Massey University, 1994) Jones, Rachel AnneThis thesis examines the little-known poetry of the women poets writing during the Romantic Period in Britain. In particular, it focuses on attitudes to love and marriage expressed in their poetry, with a view to showing how women poets were confined by their society's ideology and how this affected the content of their poetry. The thesis focuses on poems that deviate from the ideologically "appropriate" representations of love and marriage and attempts to identify the strategies by which the women managed to express conventionally unacceptable thoughts. Particular attention is paid to the work of the two leading women poets of the period, Felicia Hemans and Letitia Landon.Item Women in Thomas Hardy's novels : an interpretative study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University(Massey University, 1970) Morrison, DorothyWhen one begins a study of the women in Hardy's novels one discovers critical views of great diversity. There are features of Hardy's work which received favourable comment then as now; his descriptions of nature for instance, and his rustic characters have appealed to most critics over the years. But his philosophical and social comment have drawn criticism ranging from the virulent to the scornful. In particular his attitude to and treatment of love and marriage relationships have been widely argued, and it is the women concerned who have been assessed in the most surprising and contradictory manner. The first critic of stature was Lionel Johnson¹Lionel Johnson, The Art of Thomas Hardy (1894). London, 1923, p.193. best known as a poet. In 1894 he wrote of Hardy's women: 'I cannot think that any of them is so powerfully conceived and drawn as are the best of the men;' but he adds that they provoke an 'amazed awe of their infinite ingenuities,' and quotes a remark of Swift's about the pleasure that a few words 'spoken plain by a parrot will give.' [FROM INTRODUCTION]Item Striving for autonomy : representative female characters in the detective novels of P. D. James : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 1999) Greenwood, IreneRepresentative female characters from several of P D James's detective novels are used to exemplify the changes in women's position in society during the four decades (from the early 1960s to the late 1990s) which span James's publishing career and which coincide with the period known as the second wave of feminism. Women characters have always taken a prominent place in P D James's detective fiction, and since the 1970s her books have increasingly foregrounded the problems that women have when working in male-dominated professions, revealing their increasing autonomy but also disclosing the continuing limitations of that autonomy. Her novels are acknowledged as becoming increasingly literary. In her early novels James followed the formula of the classic detective fiction genre quite closely. During the 1970s she experimented with novels that on the surface read as detective novels, while functioning subtextually in relation to myths and metaphors. In her most recent works she transcends the genre, using the detective formula simply as a framework for her novels of literary realism.Item The image of woman in the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of M.A. in French at Massey University(Massey University, 1975) Wilson, Heather MThe thesis examines first the situation of women in France today and their attitudes to the current questioning of women's rôles, which has arisen in part from the publication of Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxieme sexe, concluding that women are divided in their views. The early life and background of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Santre are considered, and their relationship and their attitudes to love, particularly in those respects which have influenced their writing This is followed by a brief account of aspects of existentialist philosophy as they have affected the lives of the two authors, and which are relevant in the study of their women characters, noting that it is Simone de Beauvoir who has explored the moral consequences of living in accordance with existentialist theories. The main points of Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxieme sexe are summarized, with some comments on criticisms of it, noting the sometimes hasty and not quite objective reactions of some critics and its sympathetic reception by some, but not all, women readers. Women characters in the works of each author are examined, to see how far the image presented expresses the philosophical ideas of the authors, with comments on the differences in the attitudes of the two authors to the characters, and women are then considered as they appear in their relationships with men, conventional or unconventional. The conclusion is that the image of woman presented is not one that may be considered an ideal representation of women living according to existentialist principles, but shows women of different degrees of existentialist authenticity, grappling with the problems of life.Item Images of women in the A-level literature taught in Tanzanian secondary schools and their implications for development : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Phiilosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand /(Massey University, 2000) Allardice, ElizabethTraditionally in Tanzania gendered education was carried out by family members and 'elders', with the purpose of equipping young people with the skills and knowledge they would need to play a complete role in their society. Contact with Arab traders led to the adoption of Islam in some communities and the establishment of Koranic schools. With Christianity and the colonial administration; first by Germany and later by Britain, came Western formal education. Women had little access to either of these forms of education however and were not admitted in large numbers to schools until the socialist education policies of the post independence government were put into place. Despite these policies, society's discriminatory attitudes towards women continued to mitigate women's advancement to higher education. This has helped to lead to women's low status in society, the lack of recognition for their contributions to that society and their inability to shape the development of Tanzania on an equal basis with men. Within the education system women and girls suffer many disadvantages which contribute to their lack of academic success. Not least of these is a biased curriculum which is particularly evident in the content of school text books and reading material. Books in the A level literature in English syllabus are all written by men and an analysis of the content of the eight most frequently used books shows the predominance of negative images of women and gender relations which denigrate and devalue women and girls. These negative images, internalised by the female students, prevent them achieving the goals of the syllabus and may contribute to low self esteem and their subsequent low representation in tertiary institutions. Books written by African women writers, which portray more positive images of women and alternative gender relations, are available and would be valuable additions to the syllabus for both male and female students.Item Dressing for dinner : Renée's literary explorations of the changing roles available to strong women in New Zealand society : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University(Massey University, 1999) Williams, Susan LillianRenée has defined herself as a "lesbian feminist with socialist working class ideals." Throughout her oeuvre she has explored the changing roles open to strong women who assume a leadership position in New Zealand society. Among these possibilities is the development of strong bonding between women which can lead to the formation of non-traditional family units. Accordingly, the study of her accessible plays and prose, organised in chronological order of the times in which the fictional events were set, may follow that exploration in terms of a series of key motifs.Item 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 AnneThe 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.Item History, gender and tradition in the Māori nation : female leaders in Witi Ihimaera's The Matriarch, The Whale Rider and The Parihaka Woman : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand(Massey University, 2015) Hepi, TraceyThis research is underpinned by the question of how Witi Ihimaera portrays the survival of Māori nationhood through his female protagonists in The Matriarch, The Whale Rider and The Parihaka Woman. Specifically this thesis aims to inves-tigate how the texts question and reconsider ethnocentric Western notions of history, while exploring a Māori point of view that interrogates and refigures that history through recourse to myth; it also examines how the modes of transmission of Indigenous mythologies in these works intercept both racial politics and the gender protocols framing the interpretation of Indigenous bodies. I shall argue that Ihimaera’s historical revisionism seeks to refigure Māoridom’s links to tradi-tion and restore a symbolic Māori sovereignty through an idea of history that can encompass both Pākehā and Māori.Item Self-abnegation and self-assertion in the poetry of Christina Rossetti : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University(Massey University, 1995) Gray, Faith ElizabethIn the century since her death, Christina Rossetti has most often been described as a "poet of loss", an orthodox devotional poet who wrote of lost love and self-abnegation. This thesis examines Christina's general and religious poetry to discuss the techniques by which statements of self-abnegation are transformed into sometimes radical statements of self-assertion. Particular attention has been paid to those poems which express an individualistic vision of the self as plural and fragmented. An intertextual model has been adopted to examine the poetry's polyphonic nature; the several co-existing 'voices' and themes within Christina's work (yielding and assertive, orthodox and unconventional, Christian and Gothic), have been traced to reveal a poetry of conflict and complexity.