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Subject: search.filters.subject.Narration (Rhetoric)

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    Possible worlds literary theory and the gospel narratives : truth, reference, and the reading experience : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Neville, Ethan
    This thesis is an experimental application of possible worlds literary theory to the four Gospel narratives found in the Bible. I argue that modelling the Gospel narratives as “possible worlds” enables the questions about reference, genre, and ontology to be revisited in a productive way. While the Gospels have typically been understood by narrative critics as being self-referential, a possible worlds model promotes a more holistic approach which takes into consideration the claims that these narratives make on the actual world of reality. To ignore these claims, I argue, is to misinterpret the function of biblical narrative. Once we understand the Gospels as autonomous modal systems, the “textual actual world” (the centre of the modal system) offers a place where readers can recenter to and “actualise” the possible states of affairs represented by the narrator. In this way, the sender’s instructions are not transgressed, and successful narrative communication can take place. Upon de-immersion, however, it is also possible to consider the compatibility of the four worlds projected by the text with the reader’s native world. Accordingly, in this thesis I suggest that modelling the Gospel narratives as possible worlds allows for a clearer definition of the type of worlds the Gospels project, as well as offering a sophisticated theory of reference that is fitting with how readers both intuitively and critically engage with texts.
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    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 Ross
    The 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.