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The World-Swimmers, Patrick L. West

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis has two main parts. The first comprises a collection of nineteen short stories, entitled The World-Swimmers. The second takes the form of an exegesis, 'Framing Fictions & Fictional Friendships,' which provides a critical commentary on the collection, and on the nexus of text and context. The stories vary in length from approximately 1,000 to over 4,000 words. Various writing styles are used to develop fictional explorations of a range of themes, which include: the relationship between the natural and the human worlds, the imbrication of local place and international space, obsession, entrapment, and desire. However, perhaps the most …