The thesis focuses on representations of Indigeneity by non-Indigenous writers and in particular the author's practice in the writing of a children's novel, in which the relationship between non-Indigenous and Indigenous characters is represented as part of a colonial and post-colonial, contemporary world. The exegesis takes an experimental approach to representing theory in a fictocritical, multi-genre form.

This thesis examines contemporary interpretations of a selection of important texts written by New Zealand women between 1910 and 1940, and also a film and film script written more recently (which are considered as re-readings of a novel by Mander). The thesis argues that, though reading or meaning-making is always an activity of construction there will, at any given moment, always be reasons for preferring one way of reading over another-a reading most appropriate to a situation or circumstances. This study is motivated by a desire to understand how literary criticism has changed in recent years, particularly under the influence of feminism, and how a reader today can make a choice among competing methods of interpretation. Comparisons are drawn between various possible readings of the texts in order to classify methods of reading, particularly nationalist and feminist reading strategies. The over-all tendency of the argument is to propose a more self-critical and self-conscious approach to reading, and to develop a materialist and historical approach which I see as particularly important to the New Zealand context in the 1990s. / Thesis is now published as a book. Paul M. (1999) Her Side of the Story: readings of Mander, Mansfield and Hyde. Dunedin: Otago University Press. http://www.otago.ac.nz/press/ for more information.

This thesis explores the topic of literature-into-film adaptation by investigating the use of New Zealand fiction by film-makers in this country. It attempts this task primarily by examining eight case-studies of the adaptation process: five features designed for cinema release (Sleeping Dogs, A State of Siege, Sons for the Return Home, The Scarecrow and Other Halves), one feature-length television drama (the God Boy), and two thirty-minute television dramas (The Woman at the Store and Big Brother, Little Sister, from the series Winners and Losers). All eight had their first screenings in the ten-year period 1975-1985. For each of the case-studies, the following aspects are investigated: the original work of fiction, a practical history of the adaptation process (including interviews with people involved), and a study of changes made during the scripting and shooting stages. The films are analysed in detail, with a focus on visual and auditory style, in particular how these handle the themes, characterisation and style of the original works. Comparisons are made of the structures of the novels and the films. For each film, an especially close reading is offered of sample scenes (frequently the opening and closing scenes). The thesis is illustrated with still photographs – in effect, quotations from key moments – and these provide a focus to aspects of the discussion. Where individual adaptation problems existed in particular case-studies (for example, the challenge of the first-person narration of The God Boy), these are examined in detail. The interaction of both novels and films with the society around them is given emphasis, and the films are placed in their cultural and economic context - and in the context of general film history. For each film, the complex reception they gained from different groups (for example, reviewers, ethnic groups, gender groups, the authors of the original works) is discussed. All the aspects outlined above demonstrate the complexity of the responses made by New Zealand film-makers to the pressure and challenges of adaptation. They indicate the different answers they gave to the questions raised by the adaptation process in a new national cinema, and reveal their individual achievements. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

This dissertation examines the eight dramas which Lord Byron wrote in Italy, to evaluate this motives in writing plays, and to trace his views on various fields. The plays are discussed individually in some detail. The Introductory Chapter indicates the status of the theatre in Byron's time, and distinguished "poetic" dramas from plays written with a view to the stage. Byron's idea of a "mental theatre" is indicated, together with his involvement in the production of dramas as a member of the Drury Lane Management Committee. Chapter Two: Manfred, Byron's first play, written in 1817, is seen as a development from Gothic drama; a closer examination suggests Byron described the world in dualistic terms. The eponymous protagonist defies the claims of the "evil Principle in propria persona." Promethean aspects of the hero are indicated, and auto-biographical elements in the play are considered. Chapter Three: Marino Faliero is seen as a "political" drama, in which the tragic protagonist identifies the State as the oppressor of individual rights. The Doge Faliero's "traditional" code of ethics is opposed by a revolutionist ethic which he adopts in order to crush the State. Byron suggests the Doge is used by both the State and his revolutionary allies as a figurehead; the Doge's character is investigated, and Byron's involvement in political affairs is briefly examined to show any political motive in his writing the play. Chapter Four: Sardanapalus explores the idea of a humane ruler condemned by his subjects as too "soft," and deposed by traditional elements in the army and state religion. Byron's skeptical and "liberal" views are indicated. Chapter Five: The Two Foscari shows the "suppressed passions" operating against a political current. Byron is seen to question assumptions concerning "duty" and patriotism, along lines explored in the two preceding neoclassical plays. Chapter Six: Cain. Byron's most controversial play is seen as an attempt to define man's relationships to God and nature. Byron takes up earlier suggestions in his plays of a dualist view of the universe, and expatiates on his sceptic views. A notion of the mind's self-sufficiency, outlined in Manfred, is further developed. Chapter Seven: Heaven and Earth provides further definition of man's place in an ostensibly hostile universe. Japhet, the "hero" of the drama, is confounded by the apparent indiscriminateness of God's punishment of man in the Flood. The notion of plural worlds, suggested in earlier works, and particularly in Cain is again utilised. Chapter Eight: Werner. In Byron's most "theatrical" work, an inheritance of guilt is reviewed to suggest the notion of a "damned world." Byron's deliberate melodramatic structuring of Werner, and his concern with psychological investigation of notive are examined. Chapter Nine: The Deformed Transformed. Byron's last, unfinished, play provides a recapitulation of themes of the earlier plays and looks forward to the style and concerns of Don Juan. Byron is most "inventive" and unrestrained in this drama that abrogates all the classical unities and appears to work toward an endorsement of the idea of salvation by act of will. The concluding chapter relates Byron's view of the universe that emerges form the dramas considered separately and together. The particular aims of each play, and the stylistic features of each, which defy general statements about an overall ambition, are recapitulated. Byron's reasons for choosing dramatic form are briefly sketched in light of the investigation of individual works. His concern to experiment, and to avoid prescription, is seen as indicating a possible mode of operation for a revival of the English drama in the Romantic era.

This thesis is an investigation of writing by New Zealand children in the Children's Pages of five New Zealand newspapers: the New Zealand Herald, Christchurch Press and Otago Daily Times in the 1930s and 1980s, the Dominion in the 1930s; and the Wellington Evening Post in the 1980s. Its purpose is to show how children reflected their world, interacted with editors, and interpreted the adult world in published writing, and to examine continuities and changes between the 1930s and 1980s. It seeks evidence of gender variations in writing. and explores the circumstances in which the social role of writing was established by young writers. It considers the ways in which children (especially girls) consciously and unconsciously used public writing to create a public place for themselves. It compares major themes chosen by children, their topic and genre preferences in writing, and the gender and age differences evident in these preferences. The thesis is organised into three Parts, with an Introduction discussing the scholarly background to the issues it explores, and its methodology. Part One contains two chapters examining the format and tone of each Children's Page. And the role and influence of their Editors. Part Two (also of two chapters) investigates the origins and motivations of the young contributors, with a special focus on the Otago Daily Times as a community newspaper. Part Three. of four chapters, explores the children's writing itself, in separate chapters on younger and older children, and a chapter on the most popular genre, poetry. The conclusion suggests further areas of research, and points to the implications of the findings of the thesis for social history in New Zealand and for classroom practice. The thesis contains a Bibliography and an Appendix with a selection of writings by Janet Frame and her family to the Otago Daily Times Children's Page in the 1930s. / Note: Whole document restricted at the request of the author, but available by individual request, use the feedback form to request access.

The aim of this study was to explore the attitude towards using the fantasy genre while teaching literature among Swedish teachers, students and a librarian. Furthermore, the main focus was to see if the fantasy genre could contribute to the students’ cognitive and emotional development, as well as explore if using the fantasy genre could have beneficial outcomes for the students, in order for them to reach the aims of the curriculum, in the different levels of Swedish. The methods used were semi-structured interviews with three upper secondary Swedish teachers and one librarian and 47 questionnaires to students from three different classes, in the South of Sweden. The interview questions and the questioners were analyzed taking into account current research within the area, and further based on my own experience. The compiled results showed that the responding teachers and the librarian could all see positive outcomes of using the genre. 50 percent of the students would have liked to see more fantasy in their education and 50 percent had no such desire. All the interviewees thought that fantasy had a positive effect on the students’ cognitive and emotional development. The teachers also thought that using the genre in their teaching could help the students reach the aims of the curriculum, which was something 50 percent of the students noticed as well.

Storytelling has existed since the beginning of humanity, in every culture. Today, we are still telling stories that are hundreds of years old. Sleeping Beauty, or La belle au bois dormant, is a classic fairy-tale. In the original version by Charles Perrault it is a story in two parts with a morality poem in the end. In this work, the relation between the story and the lessons that can be drawn from it and its final morality are examined. The aim of this work is to find out if the morality confirms or contradicts the story in La belle au bois dormant, and in what way, and secondly if La belle au bois dormant fulfil our expectations of a fairy tale. In order to give a deeper understanding of the key words, fairy-tale, as a genre, and the role of moral in literature two books aimed for literary education in French schools are used. By defining fairy-tale as a genre and the role of moral messages in literature, they can be compared to our story. Furthermore, by using examples from the story and analysing the story and the morality poem of Sleeping Beauty respectively, thus this essay spreads light on the contradicting messages in this fairy-tale. At the end of this work the conclusion is reached that the morality poem is not in any way confirmed by the story and that the two differ in terms of theme, content, and message, and thus La belle au bois dormant differ from traditional fairy tales because its morality does not support the story.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka Rupi Kaurs diktsamling milk and honey utifrån samspelet mellan bild och text. Rupi Kaur utnyttjar bildmediet i kombination med text, vilket leder till en särpräglad och utmärkande stil. 20 dikter med illustrationer valdes ut som material för studien. Materialet analyserades med hjälp av både lyrikanalys efter boken Lyrikens liv av Janss et al. samt Skåreus metod bildsemiotik som diskursanalys. Resultaten visade att bilderna och texterna är beroende av varandra, då många av de bildsatta texterna inte innehöll bildspråk eller metaforer i någon större utsträckning. Bilderna lyfter Kaurs texter och styr i viss mån tolkningen av texten. Rebecca Watts har kritiserat Kaur eftersom hon tycker att Kaurs poesi är "artless" och saknar finess. Watts missar dock Kaurs bilder i sin analys vilket gör att hon utelämnar halva dikten, eftersom Kaurs bilder måste ses som en enhet med både text och bild.

This essay treats the subject of homosexuality in Young Adult literature, this is done by a comparative book-study from the British author Aidan Chambers book Dance on my grave (1982) and the Swedish author Anna Ahlunds book Du, bara (2016). Both books have a homosexual protagonist as their main character. Through these writers, this essay provides an insight of how the view of homosexuality is in young adult’s literature and the importance of the anti-oppressive pedagogy use in education for upper secondary school. These two books have been assayed on an anti-oppressive perspective based on homosexuality. The heteronormativity that are found around us are presented differently in the books. In Ahlund's book, the heteronormativity is created as non-existent in an alternate world, while in Chambers's book it shines through in different meetings with society and the prevailing norms. The different ways of dealing with homosexuality in relation to the outside world's norms also become interesting from a historical perspective where the acceptance and rights of gay men differ greatly. This is evidenced by the choice of words as well as the way in which homosexuality is presented. One conclusion of the essay is that conscious anti-oppressive pedagogy is important in teaching to promote equal treatment work where students are accepted for their independence from sexual orientation. By consciously using books, book reviews and work from books that raise the issue of the world’s norm critical views of homosexuals in the education. By doing so we’re able to raise the awareness of the anti-oppressive view of homosexuals and thus affecting the norm to something more positive in school and hopefully in the young adult’s everyday life after school. / Uppsatsen behandlar ämnet homosexualitet i ungdomslitteraturen genom en komparativ litteraturstudie som gjorts på böckerna Du, bara av svenska författaren Anna Ahlund och Dansa på min grav av brittiska Aidan Chambers. Båda böckerna behandlar protagonister som är homosexuella och uppsatsen syftar till att visa hur homosexualiteten framställs ur ett normkritiskt perspektiv. Syftet med uppsatsen är också att lyfta vikten av ett normkritiskt perspektiv i undervisningen ur ett didaktiskt perspektiv främst på gymnasienivå. Dessa två böcker har granskats utifrån ett normkritiskt perspektiv med utgångspunkt från homosexualiteten. Heteronormen som finns runt omkring oss presenteras i böckerna olika. I Ahlunds bok är heteronormen skapad som icke-existerande i en alternativ värld medan den i Chambers bok lyser igenom vid olika möten med samhället och de rådande normerna. Böckernas olika sätt att bemöta homosexualiteten i relation till omvärldens normer blir även intressant ur ett historiskt perspektiv där acceptansen och rättigheterna för homosexuella skiljer sig mycket. Detta syns såväl genom ordval som sättet homosexualiteten presenteras. En slutsats av uppsatsen är att ett medvetet normkritiskt perspektiv är viktigt i undervisningen för att främja likabehandlingsarbete där elever blir accepterade för den de är oberoende av sexuell läggning. Genom att medvetet använda böcker som lyfter normkritiska aspekter kan man genom boksamtal och arbete med böcker och texter arbeta normkritiskt och på så sätt påverka de rådande normerna till något mer positivt i skolan och förhoppningsvis även i det livslånga lärandet och livet.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att studera brott och straff i Martin Widmarks och Helena Willis’ barndeckarserie om LasseMajas detektivbyrå för att undersöka vilka normer gällande kriminalitet och vilka didaktiska samt moraliska värderingar som verken kan sägas förmedla. För att tydliggöra seriens relation dels till deckargenren överlag, dels till den verklighet i vilken böckerna skrivs och läses görs jämförelser också med kriminaliteten i deckare för vuxna och med verklig brottsstatistik.