Massey Documents by Type
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item "Even as myself, my very own incontrovertible, unexceptional self, I feel I am disguised" : mimicry, masquerade, and the quest for hybridity in the fiction of Salman Rushdie : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University(Massey University, 1996) Mahoney, BlairSalman Rushdie's fiction delineates the author's struggle toward an ideal of hybridity that encompasses both individual and nation. The emblematic figure of the migrant plays a large role in Rushdie's oeuvre, demonstrating the process of translation from one medium to another and the way in which Rushdie's combination of disparate elements leads to heterogeneity. Rushdie uses Bakhtin's discourses of the carnivalesque, the grotesque, and masquerade, and Bhabha's discourse of mimicry to undermine notions of fixity and purity, notions which reify difference and lead to destructive conflict and negation rather than to negotiation and productive change. Focussing on The Satanic Verses, but also using material from Midnight's Children Shame, and The Moor's last Sigh, the thesis applies the theoretical work of Mikhail Bakhtin and Homi Bhabha to the fiction of Salman Rushdie in order to show the possibilities for resistance and the production of new subjectivities. The discourses Rushdie uses have traditionally called into question issues of power and are all ambiguous, able to be used by those in possession of power to reinforce their positions, as well as by oppressed people to undermine that power. The discourses demonstrate these ambiguities particularly when used in situations of colonialism and racism, undermining divisions between colonizer and colonized and between races at the same time they reinforce those divisions. Rushdie focuses on setting up and then undermining binary oppositions, moving toward a liminal space of hybridity where terms in opposition merge into something new.Item From the outside looking in : identity in selected Fijian short stories written in English : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a Master of Arts at Massey University(Massey University, 1999) Tuvuki, Sandra DawnConstruction of colonial identities in Fiji were built upon the premise of British superiority and difference from others, as they were in other parts of the colonised world. Colonial discourse regularly employed stereotypes to reduce other communities into simple and therefore controllable concepts. Fiji's post-colonial voices have had to write their ways out of these reduced roles and clear a space for representations of life in Fiji that differ from earlier elucidations. The body of writing which began to emerge in the 1960s is represented here by a selection of short stories by a number of authors writing from and about Fiji. The main focus here is on the ways identities which emerge from these stories pull the texts together into a definable body of writing, despite the diversity of writing positions, and despite some gender-based distinctions highlighted by Arlene Griffen and Shiasta Shameem. It is concluded that identities are more difficult to negotiate when outside opinions or forces are powerful. This observation is discussed in relation to the movement of characters from innocence to experience, the affect of progress on communities and individuals, the representation of women in the texts, and the position of individuals who travel to or from Fiji or who are descendants of migrants.Item So let it fall : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2017) Greeks, Stevie ReneeWhat are you? This Master of Creative writing thesis seeks to explore this question and other questions it leads to. The thesis consists of a collection of linked autobiographical stories that explore identity, “So Let it Fall” (80%), and an accompanying exegesis, “What Are You?” (20%). Through the writing of “So Let it Fall” I tell the story of my own experiences as a multi-‐ethnic woman growing up in New Zealand with mixed Māori, Chinese and Pākehā heritage. I explore this mixed identity throughout my project through evoking contrasts and contradictions within my own personal experiences. Specifically, I tell a story of living between two parents, and I focus on the separations that developed within my life and my identity as a result of living between two cultural upbringings. When evoking different identities in “So Let it Fall,” I wrote in scene to highlight formative moments in my life as well as scenes that illustrate important characteristics in each of my parents that have been formative of my own identity. In the creative work as a whole I delve into the different roles that I have moved through as I grew up, and by doing so discover who I am. The accompanying exegesis “What Are You?” places “So Let it Fall” in context by exploring the driving questions behind this project and explicating the creative process involved. The purpose of this exegesis is to illuminate the ideas and research that went into the production of “So Let it Fall.” This is done first by outlining why I chose the the form of autobiography, then examining a range of recent autobiographical writing in New Zealand and the various perspectives these works offer. Specifically, I discuss how the nonfiction writing of Witi Ihimaera, Manying Ip, Alice Te Punga-‐Somerville, Tina Makereti, Tze Ming Mok, Ashleigh Young and Tracey Slaughter have informed my work. The intent of this combined creative and critical project is to find value in personal experiences and to create a wider pool of experiences within creative nonfiction writing in New Zealand. This thesis is not constructed to represent or speak for any ethnic groups or identities. This is formation of an identity through autobiographical writing that is my own.