Arts: Theses and Dissertations

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 2087

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Ada Wells: A study of middle class women and socialism in Christchurch 1896-1919
(1987) Sharfe, Julia
The concern of this essay is the involvement of women, best described as " middleclass matrons" , with the Labour Party in Christchurch particularly in its early years. I shall attempt to determine to what extent this unlikely union came about, to explain why these women came to see the Labour Party as best representing the beliefs they had about the future of society. In many cases, it appears that these political beliefs may have had their origins in Fabian Socialism. The ideals of the Fabians in reforming society through moral reform and education and the emphasis they placed on the role of municipal government, are all reflected in the activities of many womens' organisations in late nineteenth century New Zealand.
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Rogério Duprat’s Antinomies I : a percussionist’s investigation on the limits of choice.
(2023) De Alcantara Stuani, Ricardo
This dissertation analyses Antinomies I, written by Brazilian composer Rogério Duprat (1932–2006) for chamber orchestra in 1962. Characterised by its graphic notation and indeterminate elements, Antinomies I is unique in this era and highly innovative. Within the ensemble, the percussion part is particularly sophisticated and presents the performer with unique challenges. The analysis focuses on how the percussionist’s choices for performance impact the structure of the work. I show how the range of the percussionist’s choices in interpreting Duprat’s Antinomies I is correlated to the musical parameters specified by the notation and the other musicians’ (director and instrumentalists) choices. The percussionist’s decisions influence the work at both microstructural and macrostructural levels. There is a gap in the international literature on Brazilian experimental music. The present investigation reveals the musical significance of this complex work, which deserves more attention. Duprat establishes many solo percussion parts whose analysis reveals the interpretive process of transforming a graphic score into percussion sounds. The dissertation is divided into four chapters. First, I present a historical background to understand the artistic influences and political objectives that stimulated the composition of Antinomies I. Next, the analysis is conducted through the parameters specified by the composer in the score. For theoretical references, I use the methods of Schoenberg (1954) and Caplin (1998) to identify compositional patterns at microstructure levels and the methods of Agawu (1998, 2009) and Fishman (1991) to describe the beginning-middle-end structure. The third chapter examines the possibilities for controlling the piece’s musical parameters on percussion instruments; the solo percussion parts are analysed in detail, considering different levels of indeterminacy. In the last chapter, the theoretical options explored in the analysis are compared to the practical solutions found in the 2017 performance of Antinomies I. I show that the final configuration of the work is directly related to the performers’ decisions, resulting in the possibility of significantly different outcomes. The analysis reveals that Duprat uses an original concept of pitch material that is the basic structure of the work. The composer uses micro tunings inspired by the harmonic series, providing stability and instability to the macrostructure around specific frequencies. The percussionist translates this pitch material into percussion sounds by controlling the instrumentation, timbre, duration, dynamics, and sound connections at different levels during the piece. It is an innovative approach to percussion different from other works that use the indeterminacy of this era. Duprat intends that the performers interfere in the work at both the macro and microstructure levels, creating a democratic environment in the orchestra in which decisions are discussed. My research adds to the performance practice in percussion while deepening existing studies on experimental music made in Brazil during the 1960s.
Open Access
From hesitancy to legitimacy and beyond : a critical realist multi-case study of trust culture legitimation in the Dengvaxia vaccine scandal.
(2023) Mendoza, Karl Patrick R.
The multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur developed the Dengvaxia vaccine to combat dengue fever. However, controversy arose when it was discovered that the vaccine could cause severe illness or mortality in previously uninfected individuals. This thesis investigates the news coverage, production, and reception of the Dengvaxia vaccine scandal in the Philippines to demonstrate how the scandal reinforces certain journalistic and parental trust cultures that may have limited critical analysis and comprehension of childhood vaccinations in the country. There are three case studies conducted: a textual analysis of online news reports (n=40) on news representation, semi-structured interviews with online journalists (n=10) on news production, and focus groups with vaccine-hesitant parents (n=21) on news reception. This thesis suggests that the scandal's dominant narrative was politically motivated and legitimised the medical populism of the primary authority figure, Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta, while marginalising the perspectives of parents and Sanofi. The scandal's coverage in the news relied on the political style of medical populism, which flourishes in polarised and unequal communication environments. This thesis also reveals how online journalists reproduced the dominant narrative by simultaneously emphasising entertainment and critical analysis and the story's moral and dramatic elements. This thesis concludes that trust culture, not a specific, all-encompassing media trust problem, is the primary issue. The findings of this thesis highlight the significance of a trust culture around vaccine hesitancy and its broader implications for liberal democratic politics in the Philippines and beyond.
Open Access
A mother or not? : changing attitudes toward childbearing and caring, as presented in selected works of East and West German women writers
(1985) Thomas, Kerry Lorraine
While it is certainly true that women in both East and West Germany are no longer bound to the traditional role of wife and mother, the extent to which they are relieved of the maternal role, in particular, would seem less than satisfactory. In this study the conflicts felt by fictional female characters when faced with their maternal ·responsibilities· are investigated in selected works of East and West German women writers. Also the role of the male figure with regards to childbearing and caring is examined. However, just as the authors inevitably concentrate on their portrayals of women, so is the emphasis here on the female experience. The three areas of contraception, abortion and motherhood were chosen because they are the areas whi ch, still surrounded by taboos and myths, present the most problems to the women in the literature, and which continue to relegae thern to their ‘natural' role of mother. The literature selected deals in the main with the period 1960-1980. Authors include Charlotte Worgitzky and Elfriede Bruning of the DDR; Verena Stefan, Judith Jannberg, Christel Dorpat and Elisabeth Alexander of the BRD. Their protagonists commonly belong to the professional or artistic milieu, athough portrayals of working-class women are also included. Three of the West German novels ere autobi ographi caI, and the East German lli terature strives toward depicting women representative of its society. As such, the literature has a relevance to the problems of the society in which it was written. and this relevance will be defended by secondary literature dealing with the sociological and historical aspects of the issues raised. I found the female figures to be critical of their role of mother and to be desirous of change in all three areas of contraception, abortion and motherhood. At the same time, they are often seen to feel guilty that they are unable or unwilling to conform to traditional expectations of thern. The male figures are shown in the main to continue to refuse responsibility (except financial) for any of the three areas, although portrayals in the East German literature certainly show that the men ore of ten sli ghtly ahead of their West German counterparts. Change is demanded not only for the sake of the women, but also for the men, and particularly for the children, who cannot benefit from a system which is unable to serve their interests. Problems discussed in all of the literature indicate that the much-vaunted equality for women can only remain an illusion until society no longer regards women as having a responsibility to reproduce and to be the main caretakers of children, and also that a different and more hoIistic approach to childbearing and caring is necessary.
Open Access
Interrogatives in Idi.
(2023) Miguez, Fernando
This thesis seeks to provide the first step in analysing Idi grammar by analysing the grammar and constructions of question in Idi. Combining a descriptive approach and a corpus linguistics approach, this thesis produces an analysis of the seventeen attested Idi question words in primarily content questions, their variety their surrounding grammatical environments, their productivity, their limitations, and formulations. Polar questions are also briefly analysed within the context of the word ‘ydi’ (Idi, tl. ‘what’). This thesis provides discussion of the analyses carried out in Idi in comparison to languages both closely related and distantly unrelated, discussion of the corpus linguistics approach and its limitations, and of how research not only in Idi, but other under-documented and under-researched languages can provide a wealth of academic opportunities in the future.
Open Access
Europe's Dilemma - The Matter of Sovereignty
(2006) Mueller, Sascha
Open Access
The foundation of the Canterbury settlement
(1914) Wilson, Joseph Vivian
Open Access
Early Canterbury as a Wakefield settlement
(1932) Hewland, John Leonard Henry
Writers of colonial and New Zealand history, who mention the Canterbury settlement in the early fifties, all describe it as carried out along the lines of Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s famous system of colonisation. It is sometimes referred to as the perfect example of a Wakefield colony, but without the necessary detailed dissertation is to ascertain as accurately as possible the degree to which Wakefield's aims and plans were realized in Canterbury during the first few ; years of its history. The work divides itself more or less naturally into three parts. In the first place it was thought necessary to give a short resume of the Wakefield system, mainly for the purpose of reference. This is the more desirable, because the system was only gradually evolved by its founder, and not stated and written down definitely at one time in its perfected form. It is not till his "Art of Colonization" that manv of the details appear; and this work of Wakefield’s is complicated by references to the Colonial Office, and criticism of previous methods of colonisation, from which the plan, us such, must be more or less "dug out".
Open Access
Actual and perceived language variation across Christchurch schools.
(2023) Gomez Echenique, Cecilia
This thesis investigates linguistic variation and language attitudes across schools in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Christchurch is considered by locals and people from all over New Zealand, to have a unique social landscape. The school a person attended is an important fact that usually gets checked within minutes of meeting someone new, regardless of how long ago that was. Schools usually have strong stereotypes attached to them and saying the “wrong” school could hinder the flow of the conversation. Thus, Christchurch’s distinctive environment seems ripe for the examination of potential language variability opportunities, despite the lack of research efforts in this area. This study utilized data obtained via questionnaire to explore three things: 1) the relationship between language variation and schools, 2) reported language production and awareness of variability across schools and 3) language attitudes and reported language production across schools. Participants to the questionnaire were asked demographic questions about themselves, questions about their own language production, their attitudes and language attitudes towards schools and schools’ attendees, and their awareness of variability of linguistic variables. The findings of this research can be condensed into four main discoveries. Firstly, the school a participant attended, and their age were found to be significant predictors of reported syntactic variation. Secondly, the interaction between school and code was found to predict reported phonological variation and decile was found to be a significant predictor of innovation in vowel-merger phonological data. Thirdly, a significant negative correlation was found between reported lexical production data and prediction data. For the lexical data also, the interaction between mean and type was found to be significant. Finally, participants’ attitudes were found to negatively correlate to the subset of phonological data corresponding to intrusive /r/ and variable rhoticity. This thesis is the first study to investigate language variation across schools in Christchurch. Its findings suggest that there is language variation across Christchurch schools that could indicate the presence of emerging school dialects. Also, it shows that there are attitudes towards Christchurch schools, linguistic features, and schools’ attendees. By exploring a field of knowledge that had been previously omitted, this thesis aims to further the knowledge about language variation in New Zealand and to propose new research paths.
Open Access
’Man is seldom content to witness beauty. He must possess it.’ Representations of encounters, experiences, and engagements with albatross in the shipboard accounts of migrants and crew voyaging by sailing ship to New Zealand in the nineteenth century.
(2023) Donnithorne, Louise Carolyn
My thesis draws on more than three hundred and fifty accounts penned by migrants to nineteenth-century New Zealand to recover an important aspect of shipboard life which has hitherto been marginalised within the existing historiography. It seeks to recover the interactions of crew and passengers with albatross through the southern latitudes of the Southern Ocean. Of all the marine and avian creatures encountered on the voyage out, it was albatross that left the strongest impressions on almost all migrant writers. The surviving evidence shows that shooting and ‘fishing’ for albatross were common forms of shipboard entertainment and integral to the individual and collective experience of voyaging to New Zealand by sailing ship. Yet historians of this maritime era have overlooked the opportunity to examine, in depth, what motivated crew and passengers aboard migrant vessels to mercilessly hunt these birds. In this thesis, I will show that shooting albatross as target practice or catching these birds with a baited hook and line were popular and widespread leisure activities on the voyage out. However, I argue that albatross were primarily hunted by crew and migrants for their body parts, which could be made into a variety of personal accessories or highly sought-after saleable goods either aboard ship or once ashore.
Open Access
The defence of New Zealand : a theoretical approach to the study of the formulation and substance of New Zealand defence policy, 1935-1943
(1971) Henderson, John Trolove
The period from June 1940 to May 1943 provides an ideal subject for a close analysis of the formulation of New Zealand defence policy in a crisis situations. It is both far enough removed to make full use of public documents, yet recent enough to enable key participants to be interviewed. These three years are undoubtedly the most vital in the history of New Zealand defence and foreign policy for they mark the only time when hostile invasion appeared to be imminent. This is the contingency that ultimately every nation's defence policy is designed to meet.
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The German Tagelied, 1150-1250 : a study of a century's change in form, function and content
(1964) White, Helen
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Alle slahte list in Gottfried's Tristan
(1961) Pashby, David Allan
Of all the periods of literature in European history, that of the Hohenstaufenzeit in imperial Germany is one of the moat interesting, and of the works produced in this period, the TRISTAN of Gottfried von Strassburg the most intriguing.
Open Access
The contribution of private enterprise to New Zealand's defence policy : the early years of the Canterbury Aviation Company and the beginning of a New Zealand aviation policy
(1985) Cameron, John
In its formative days in the early years of the twentieth century, the new science of aviation owed its advance, for the most part, to the pioneering efforts of private individuals. Generally, the active interest of most Governments was only fully aroused when it became apparent that the new air machines offered unique possibilities to the science of war. In New Zealand the entry of the Government into the realm of aviation was even longer delayed than that of many other Governments. Perhaps, following on from a previous point, New Zealand's happy isolation in the South Pacific meant the crucial military motive for involvement was lacking. As a result of this Government inactivity, in the middle of the second decade of the twentieth century, a group of patriotic Cantabrians, realising the growing importance of airpower in the recently commenced European war, decided to take matters into their own hands. Whi1st they hoped to foster the development of aviation in the Dominion generally, their primary objective was to aid the Empire's war effort by training pilots for service in the Royal Flying Corps. To this end the Canterbury (New Zealand) Aviation Company Limited was established in mid-1916. It is with this company, and its main inspiration Henry Francis Wigram, that this essay is concerned.
Open Access
A contribution to the history of the Jews in New Zealand
(1928) Balkind, Violette Frances
This is an attempt to give some connected account of the history of the Jews in New Zealand: their beginnings; the growth of their religious communities; their occupations and their development under New Zealand conditions. The work has been difficult owing to the fact that there have been as yet no written records of the Jews in New Zealand. All the information on the subject has been gathered from newspapers, personal reminiscences and the minute books of the various congregations, except in the cases when a fact has been otherwise noted in the text.
Open Access
The Christchurch metropolitan library service, 1852-1948 : a critical survey
(1950) Wood, Derek E.
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The Christchurch community at war, 1914-1918 : society, discourse and power
(2003) Parsons, Gwen Alicia
The Christchurch community was divided in its response to the First World War. Supporters and opponents of the war promoted rival discourses in an attempt to dictate the parameters and premises of debate. On the one hand, pro-war discourse, which was promulgated almost exclusively by members of the Christchurch elite, was designed to exclude opposition to the war. It identified support for the conflict with New Zealand patriotism and imperial loyalty; it assumed that citizens had a duty to defend the state; it contrasted German barbarism with British traditions of liberty, underpinning claims that the war was just and fought in defence of Christian civilisation; it ennobled individual participation in the war effort by promoting a discourse of sacrifice with roots in Christian doctrine; and it presented conscription as an egalitarian doctrine based on fairness and equality of sacrifice. Pro-war discourse pervaded the public space, it set the parameters for most public comment on the war, it was supported by censorship, and it was encoded in legislation suppressing dissent. Dissenting discourse, on the other hand, was promulgated almost exclusively by the leaders of organised labour. It drew on socialist discourse, presenting the war as a device through which members of the capitalist class furthered their own interests; it co-opted the discourse of British liberty to protest against conscription; it manipulated the discourse of equality of sacrifice to argue that conscription of wealth should accompany the conscription of working class men; and it used the same discourse to protest against the exploitation of working class families by war profiteers. Dissenting discourse was far less pervasive than pro-war discourse; it was confined to a group that claimed to represent a single class, rather than the whole community; attempts to propagate it were often ignored by the mainstream media; and it did not affect the official response to the war. However, it did have some influence in working class communities, and anti-war candidates continued to poll well in working class electorates during and after the war.
Open Access
The coalmining industry of the Westport district
(1927) Doel, Ormonde
In writing the following dissertation my aim has been to give, as far as possible, a comprehensive account of the coalmining industry of those townships in the Westport district which lie along the thirty miles of railway which connects Westport at the mouth of Buller to Seddonville on the Mokihinui. Hence I have not mentioned the one or two very small mines in the Buller Gorge, nor does my subject include the mines in the Greymouth district comprising the Grey coalfield. The importance of the Buller collieries is a recognised fact in New Zealand, firstly because they produce about one quarter of the Dominion's annual coal tonnage and employ over one thousand men, secondly, because the district is one of the few bituminous coal areas in New Zealand; and lastly because the industry is the life blood of the West Coast, now that the days of the gold seekers are but a memory. Of the mines dealt with, those belonging to the Westport Coal Company have received a more intensive treatment than the others, the reason being that these collieries are the largest in New Zealand and they have been responsible for four fifths of the coal produced in the Buller district. The numerous small mines which have been worked near Seddonville since the abandonment of the State Golliery there in 1914 have been dealt wlth rather meagrely, but then their size and value are not sufficient to warrant a more detailed description , otherwise a rather distorted idea of their importance may be formed.
Open Access
A city built upon a swamp : the story of the drainage of Christchurch, 1850-1903
(1942) Hercus, Agnes Isabel
In this thesis I have tried to show that the Canterbury Settlement, inaugurated by Edward Gibbon Wakefield and his associates and planned to a greater degree than any other British colonial possession, nevertheless failed in at least one important aspect. In the life of any community the promotion of the physical well-being of its members should be one of the fore- most considerations of its legislators. True, these latter cannot afford to ignore spiritual and cultural concerns. But then it is also true that religion and education flourish more vigorously in an atmosphere unrestricted as far as possible by hampering rules and regulations. The natural leaders in such things who will be found in any normally constituted community are those best fitted to secure their promotion. On the other hand, such matters as road-building, the construction of public works, and drainage, cannot be left to the enterprise of the individual without chaos resulting. The Canterbury Associates failed to see the spiritual, the cultural and the phys1cal needs of the community in their proper prospective.
Open Access
Aid to Asia : the origins of New Zealand's post-war foreign policy, 1943-50
(1984) Falconer, Wilma Margaret
It is the purpose of this thesis to establish that the development of New Zealand's post-war external aid policy in the years, 1943-1950, was a result of the New Zealand government's dependent relationship with the United Kingdom. Furthermore it is our contention that the New Zealand government did not independently adopt this aid policy but rather, that the exigencies of the United Kingdom's post-war economic reconstruction, particularly in relation to its Asian Commonwealth and Empire, required the support of its Dominion governments. At the request of the United Kingdom, the New Zealand government, compelled by tradition and economic dependency, supported British-interests in Asia in the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, and in the Commonwealth based Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic Development in South and South-East Asia. The economic and political circumstances surrounding the development of New Zealand's external aid policy, are examined in this thesis in three chapters.