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Mrs. Blackbird And The Visiting Chair, Taylor Barnhart
Mrs. Blackbird And The Visiting Chair, Taylor Barnhart
MSU Graduate Theses
The following thesis is a middle grade novel exploring the events of one summer in the lives of two siblings, Susannah and Sawyer. The siblings are grieving the recent death of their mother and, at the same time, attempting to navigate the emotional withdrawal of their father. During the summer, the siblings get to know their eccentric neighbor, Mrs. Blackbird, who communicates with the spirit of her dead husband through an old armchair which is rumored to have magical powers. The novel deals primarily with the theme of grief and its pervasive nature in people’s lives. The story looks at …
Dinner At Eight, Anastasia M. Berkovich
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 …
Catching My Breath, Amanda Faith Conner
Catching My Breath, Amanda Faith Conner
MSU Graduate Theses
Catching My Breath is a collection of four fictional, graphic novel scripts that examine themes such as identity, trauma, death, and family relationships. Each story takes place in different coastal cities in Maine, including Kennebunkport, Sandy Neck Beach, Old Orchard Beach, and Crescent Beach. These specific locales create a distinctive atmosphere for each story within the collection, as well as provide the places from which the protagonist's recollections originate. This collection uses the visual and verbal technique of comics to illustrate the protagonist's childhood and adulthood identity construction.