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August In The Dog Moon, Desmond Fuller

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of a novel in progress. August in the Dog Moon depicts a story about the strange, beautiful, and frightening things we find while exploring the liminal perspective in wild and abandoned places.

In constructing a long-form narrative, this thesis attempts to demonstrate the interworking of multiple narrators through a close third-person narration shared between three primary characters, two supporting characters, transcriptions of found recordings, and several chapters from an omniscient perspective. The intention being to explore the narrative of place through various perspectives and experiences. The accumulating effect being one of panoramic storytelling, increased instances of dramatic …

Brides Of The Jasmine Land: A Collection Of Short Stories Exploring Womanhood In The Middle East, Batool Alzubi

MSU Graduate Theses

This creative thesis includes four short fiction stories, introduced by a critical essay about rhyming action in coming of age narratives. I discuss the works of John Gardner, Milan Kundera, Charles Baxter, and Mohamed Makhzangi to explore techniques in symmetrical composition and narrative echo. My hypothesis is that rhyming action in coming of age stories can be used as an effective technique to highlight the characters’ change and realization by the end of their stories. When reading about a character’s coming of age, the reader is not able to spot rhyming action until completing the work and reflecting on motifs. …

Okay, Kassie H. Bohannon

Honors College Theses

Okay is a minimalistic literary fiction short story cycle that examines the lives of Collin and Charlotte Grearson, two children who grow up with a working class status in a broken home, and their journeys to adulthood as they both respectively cope with their underlying mental health problems. The stories in Okay exemplify how refusal to seek help for a mental health problem, or the lack of support from others even if the illness is communicated, can cause a disconnect between family members, the worsening of the illness itself, and the eventual possibility of fatal conclusions. Okay is composed as …

Sixth Form, Adrienne Barton

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The ten stories in this short story collection explore the liminal spaces created by certain physical spaces as well as times in the characters’ lives. The stories are largely related to a school environment, and the relationships and experiences that are unique to the players living and moving within that context. How much are the relationships and actions of the characters influenced by the setting. What weight do institutional forces and tradition carry in the characters’ lives, and how do they exploit it for their own will or conform?

Dinner At Eight, Anastasia M. Berkovich

MSU Graduate Theses

This creative thesis is comprised of six short stories of fiction in various styles and lengths, as well as a critical introduction wherein I discuss the various influences on my work, ranging from Charles Baxter and Karen Joy Fowler to Doležel and John Gardner. All of these stories share a theme of family and loss. Each story also grapples in some way with changing times and places. I have endeavored, by using rhyming action, repeating images, and melodrama, to give each story a great sense of emotion, a feeling both specific to the story but connects to the wider reading …

Unconditional Positive Regard, Tyler Beckett

English Theses & Dissertations

This collection of short stories brings together the work of Tyler Beckett for the first time, representing the breadth and depth of his skill in fiction. His stories largely focus on the small towns of the American South, and the identities that those towns' residents create for themselves. Through this investigation we see questions on community, belonging, outsiders, and the challenges of joining communities, as well as the question of whether those communities are worth joining. Throughout the collection, Mr. Beckett uses his clear, lucid prose to engage with his characters in a tender way, even as they commit their …

Father And Mother Songs, Heather Fowler

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A collection of stories submitted by Heather Fowler for receipt of an MFA degree in Summer 2015.

What You Leave Behind: A Collection Of Travel Essays, Madison Bernath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What You Leave Behind is a collection of essays framed by the theme of travel. The essays seek to understand the changeability and the consistency of the self when exposed to new cultures and new environments. They also explore what travel tells us about varying world perspectives, and how much of those varying world perspectives people can hope to understand. Lastly, these true-life stories and ruminations explore how travel shapes relationships: familial, romantic, and platonic. At its core, this thesis strives to reveal how traveling can inform the way people understand themselves, the world around them, and the relationships they …

It's Good To See You're Awake, Maurice C. Ruffin

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a short story collection set primarily New Orleans and focuses on the subject of fathers and sons. It explores the effect that the absence of a father figure or the presence of an unsuitable father may have on boys and men. The stories are literary fiction.

The Former Lives Of Buildings, Bethany Duvall-Francisco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Former Lives of Buildings is a novel about thirty-one-year-old architect Adelle Corey. Adelle is a woman in denial. A nightmare figure called the Baron steals memories of her closest relationships and most poignant experiences. He hides the memories in Adelle’s dreams, where he reconstructs them into buildings. The only way she can recover the memories is by cutting or tattooing these buildings into her skin. Adelle uses notebooks, mnemonic devices, and academic trivia to keep track of her daily routines. The novel takes place in contemporary times and opens in the burn unit of Bridgeport Hospital, Connecticut, where Adelle …

Preventable Conditions, William Wight

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Preventable Conditions is a collection of literary short stories intended to explore themes of familial communication, complementary dysfunctions, and the degree to which we all try to hide from or correct our own mistakes. The first five stories in the collection are related, while the last three stand alone. Each of the stories before “Fair Grounds” is told from the perspective of a different member of the Powell family, a fictional clan from Marietta, Georgia. The Powell family stories largely adhere to the basic conventions of realism, while the three remaining pieces venture closer to the absurd.