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    The paranoid metanarrative and the postcolonial response in post-9/11 fiction : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2014) Dous, Abdulaziz Nasser
    No abstract. The following is an excerpt from the preface "The Pit and the Ladder": In the critical component of this project: “Fiction Under the Clout of the Dominant 9/11 Metanarrative”, I will examine the extent of the influence of the dominant 9/11 metanarrative on post-9/11 fiction. This section is conducted in terms of literary analysis and gauges whether the selected novels succeed at producing counternarratives that incite literary and public incredulity in the dominant 9/11 metanarrative or, conversely, if they aid in perpetuating that same metanarrative. Through the creative component entitled The Righteous Man, I will recreate the post-9/11 world, but from a perspective that is loosely based on my personal experience after 9/11 in both the US and Saudi Arabia. I would contend that this perspective deterritorialises and forces the reader to look through the vantage point of someone who is neither a direct victim nor a culprit of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Through the construction of a protagonist who suffers unjustly from racial profiling - under the guise of the implementation of stricter security measures - I hope to showcase how the perpetuation of the 9/11 metanarrative creates a vicious cycle of paranoid and xenophobic tendencies. These, in turn, feed into the metanarrative’s pool of doctrines and exacerbate the endless cycle of victims-turned-offenders.
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    Fiona Kidman, writer : a feminist critique of New Zealand society : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Leclercq, Anna Elizabeth
    Two perspectives are pervasive in Fiona Kidman’s writing: the reconstruction of historical female voices, through fictional narrative; the recording of contemporary female voices, through autobiographical commentary and through fictional characterisations. This thesis engages with examples of Kidman’s work which show Kidman’s literary project to be the shaping of a New Zealand Pakeha cultural identity from a feminist perspective. In other words, Kidman constructs a patriarchal plot in order to demonstrate and expose the historical and contemporary inequalities of women’s position within New Zealand society. Their fictionalisations are influenced significantly by relationship intimacy, but their intention lies deeper. For those who wish to explore below the emotional surface of Kidman’s stories, there lies a social metanarrative, a journey of discovery for the reader. Each characterisation is part of an arranged message which Kidman challenges us to decipher. Kidman’s constructed narrative is manipulative and manipulated; put together in order to explore and explain the workings of the female psyche under stress; how the female psyche responds to the pressures of living within a patriarchal society; those ways in which the female psyche acts and reacts when seeking to buck the prevailing system, and how the system responds to this. Although not apparent when read piecemeal, Kidman’s body of work has an identifiable sense of unity, amounting to a social critique of an epoch.