Digital Commons Network^™

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

Adelynn, Sari Shuler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Adelynn follows a princess who is kidnapped from her wedding by rebels. After a failed attempt at escaping, Adelynn realizes a rebel named Kev is pretending to fall in love with her to learn information for the rebellion to use. Adelynn plays along, hoping to eventually take down the rebellion. As time progresses, and Adelynn’s parents don’t rescue her, she develops true feelings for Kev. When the compound is raided, Adelynn and Kev admit their feelings for each other and flee to a nearby city. In the city, Adelynn realizes her idealized perception of her kingdom is false. She chooses …

Decadent Gothic: The Horrors Of An Urban World, Kyle Willis

Honors College

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and understand the rapid popularity of horror literature in the 1880s and 1890s through a literary style known as decadent Gothic. To do this, I will analyze two keystone texts of the style: Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. This analysis will be done using a framework of London’s nineteenth-century urbanization to understand the represented fears in both texts. This thesis shows that urbanization created a decentralized environment full of frightening stimuli, and that decadent …

Re: Leapt Into Rain, A Story And Disquisition, Lukas Norment

Honors College

Re:Leapt Into Rain is a mystery novella written by a Civil Engineering major detailing a murder that occurs during a writer’s retreat. Alongside the murder, a story about the desire for fame and recognition in a world where the common man is forgotten is told in the mind of a young writer as he investigates the crime. The preceding disquisition goes into the conception of the murder plot, creation of characters, and the process of writing the story. In addition, the author provides a brief overview of the evolution of mystery writing, pays respect to his inspirations, and reflects on …

The World Of Marubia: A Writer’S Perspective Into Building Worlds Using Transmedia Aesthetics, Diego Lucca Espinosa

Whittier Scholars Program

This Senior Project is a Generative and Research Thesis based around the techniques and aesthetics of Transmedia storytelling that are used when dabbling in World Building. It includes three interconnected creative pieces: 2 flash fiction stories and a short screenplay, all revolving and connected to the story world of my creation, Marubia. These stories exist in a world going through a technopoaclypse; Robotic creatures wield magic against their Human brothers in arms, slaved to the command of a Dark God. The Transmedia Aesthetics coined by Professor Geoffrey Long, specifically Resonant Simple-Story Myths, Fractal Storytelling, and World-Centric Narrative Design were pivotal …

Spring 2024

The Alembic

The Alembic - Spring 2024. 143 pages including covers and advertisements.

Table of Contents

Editors’ Note, vii

Poetry

S. Yarberry

Catherine’s Poem, 3

Looking at Robert Blake, 4

The Tyger , 6

Ethan Cunningham

Woman Under Water, 7

William Heath

A Bar in Santa Cruz, 8

In Asturias, 9

Joan Barker

Hometown, 10

Ella Bloom

Loneliness, 12

The Fog/A Lighthouse, 14

Found, 16

Tom McFadden

Where the Light May End, 17

If It Were Spring, 18

Bruce McRae

Daydreamers, 20

Does Your Dog Bite?, 21

A Strained Affair, 22

Erin Bolger

19 reasons, 23

Richard Dinges

Thunder, 24

Mulberry Trees …

I Am Willow, Ella Burch

English Student Projects

A creative writing piece used to personify a willow tree's view of our ever changing and expanding world. A subtle warning against humanity's destruction of nature, and a reminder of the small joys and natural beauty of our world.

Dead Or Alive?, Hanna Fritz

English Student Projects

"Dead or Alive?" is a work of fiction that focuses on a young college student called Grace Browning, who must wrestle with questions of home, identity, and moving forward with the help of the undead Dr. Castor Archibald. Oh, and it all happens in the Chawton Church graveyard (hence the "undead" part).

I Want To Go To Church, Ella Burch

English Student Projects

A creative writing piece used to describe the beginning of a journey back to faith for someone who has questioned the providing nature of God. A reminder of how being in a holy place with the simple intention of praying can mean as much as spreading the gospel on a distant shore.

Gandal Syllabus English 320, Advanced Fiction Writing, Keith Gandal

Open Educational Resources

Students in this course will learn the art of writing and rewriting short stories.

Friends In Fiction: Bonding With Fictional Characters Introduced Through Fictional Narrative Positively Affects And Interplays With The Psychology And Social Behaviors Of Adults To Influence Engagement, Vishnupriya Alavala

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Just as people can form relationships with each other, they can befriend and interact with characters. As broadening media outlets continue to introduce fictional characters, it is vital to understand the effects relationships with characters, referred to as parasocial phenomena, have on individuals. In turn, this will offer a new perspective on the effects of engaging with fiction. Bonding with fictional characters introduced through television or print narratives affects and interplays with the psychology and social behaviors of adults. Most studies support the positive effects of parasocial phenomena in terms of personality, mindset, and social skills. Other studies state that …

Defining Gastrocriticism As A Critical Paradigm On The Example Of Irish Literature And Food Writing: A Vade Mecum, Anke Klitzing

Doctoral

The aim of this study is to map out the gastrocritical approach, using Irish literature and writing to test its premises, and to provide a vade mecum for its practical application, particularly for interdisciplinary scholars. The gastrocritical approach furnishes a “culinary lens” for reading food and foodways in imaginative texts, informed by work in the field of food studies and gastronomy. The approach was broadly characterised by Tobin in 2002, but only sparsely used since. The past fifteen years have seen an increasing self-awareness and reflexivity in the field of literary food studies. As the field matures, there have been …

Bird And Bix, Emma Holley

English Student Projects

This short story was originally written for Advanced Creative Writing. I was inspired by a little bird that tapped on the window of a study room on 2 Breu. I wondered if he was looking in at me to say 'hello'. I knew I wanted to write a story about a bird who lived in the Breu parking lot, but the story didn't click until I found another character to befriend him. As I scratched out ideas, I heard the little voice of a bug delightfully shouting about the time he found an entire potato chip in the parking lot, …

Chaos, Damon Stone

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Over the duration of the summer and this past semester, I have revised a story which I wrote in middle school, known as ChAos. The story focuses on fictionalized version of friends of mine from middle school, as they survive a zombie apocalypse together, while bringing down the corporate entity that started it, and dealing with the political aftermath of such an event. Throughout this, I have started work on an audiobook as well, consulting with several different voice actors to help with the project.

Throughout this process, several changes had been done to add to the quality of the …

Antología Vol. Iii Crónica, Cuento, Microrrelato, Poesía Y Relato, Jose Higuera Lopez, Dejanira Alvarez Cardenas

CUNY Mexican Studies Institute

Creada por iniciativa del Instituto de Estudios Mexicanos de CUNY,

la Feria Internacional del Libro de la Ciudad de Nueva York es el espacio

por antonomasia de la promoción del español en la ciudad más

vibrante y cosmopolita de los Estados Unidos. Un español que se

mantiene vivo y cambiante por las muchas migraciones que componen

el entramado de la metrópoli y cuya vitalidad se ve reflejada en

la expresión escrita de la lengua; no solo en el terreno de la literatura

sino también en los de la academia y el periodismo.

La literatura producida en español en la ciudad …

Self-Listening & Envisioning Audience Exercise & Assignment, Jacob Kose

Open Educational Resources

This assignment and exercise encourages students to pick a formative story, artifact, individual, or moment in their acquisition of language and/or literacy. Students record themselves telling this story, then type that recording, and make choices about how to edit that text.Instructors may invite students to read these aloud, and/or peer edit. Students may also submit reflections and comment on each others' reflection.

The Siren Of San Francisco, Emily Gage

Whittier Scholars Program

The Siren of San Francisco is a story I have been interested in telling for the longest time focusing on the coming of age of the main character, Mia, and how she deals with change through gaining the power of shapeshifting. A lot of the graphic novel explores the relationships between Mia, her mom, and her close friends and how her relationships with them change during this transitional period.

The driving force behind this story was my enduring interest in relationships, identity, feminism, and how people can shape the people around them, including themselves. I approached this particular story from …

The Cross And The Crime Scene: The Convergence Of Writing As A Christian And The Mystery Genre, Ellie Talalight

Senior Honors Theses

This creative thesis begins with a discussion of the different approaches to writing as a Christian. It describes the evangelistic approach, the integrative approach, and the thematic approach, which vary in the degree to which the author’s faith is explicitly or implicitly included. The thesis then focuses on the way Dorothy Sayers and G. K. Chesterton incorporated their faith into their mystery stories. It then includes excerpts from an original mystery novel. Finally, it considers the value and purpose of this project.

Those Beneath, Dee Lancaster

Research Learning Experiences (RLEs)

The first chapter in a longer prose fiction project featuring a supernatural hike through Yellowstone National Park.

People Eater, Lilas Verrill

Honors College

Monsters have persisted in literature throughout human culture serving the role as the living embodiment of our greatest fears. Based on that definition, we should have no reason to want to offer them our sympathy, our understanding, our love, yet we see them written with depth, complexity, even humanity, time and time again. The monster is more than just what scares us. They can be difficult to understand - foreign and strange, but if we take the time to look a little deeper, we may find part of ourselves staring back. This thesis explores the role the “monster” plays as …

Spring 2023

The Alembic

The Alembic - Spring 2023. 142 pages including covers and advertisements.

Table of Contents

Fiction and Poetry

• Bibars, Sofia, The Glittery Bits In Our Home, 11
• Christiansen, Celine, A Good Man's Grave, 23
• Clarke, Fiona, By The River Of Babylon, 38
• Dinges, Richard, Conductor, 39
• Dinges, Richard, Grim Reaper, 40
• Dinges, Richard, Raising, 41
• Ellis, Mark, A Lady Names Sorrows Bloom, 42
• Flores, Mariela, My Name, 43
• Flores, Mariela, Five Ways To Look At Hands, 45
• Flores, Mariela, Hardest Thing Is To Say Goodbye, 47
• Flores, Mariela, Trash Day, …

Three Thingness: A Critical Introduction To The Collection, Kasey Peters

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The following project, "Three Thingness," consists of a critical introduction and craft essay on short story writing, and a sample of the collection Very Light in the End. The critical essay "Three Thingness" introduces a framework for evaluating short stories, and then evaluates a few key components undergirding the collection: gender, plot, and comic relief. Part postmodern realism and part absurst-lite^tm fiction, the collected stories depict characters as they navigate prescriptive narratives about bodies, gender, queerness, and illness.

Advisor: Chigozie Obioma

The Ghost Of Amritsar, Joe Horne

Honors College

The Ghost of Amritsar is a historical-fiction novel set in the British Raj during the first half of the 20th century. Through the lens of a Punjabi revolutionary, this thesis explores some of the roles played by the diverse identities of the Indian subcontinent during the Indian independence movement and the violence that followed the Partition of 1947. By observing the history of India and the British Raj, The Ghost of Amritsar attempts to analyze the period’s violence with a human, empathetic, approach.

Are We Good Or Bad Or Somewhere In Between: An Original Novel, Faith Lymburner

Honors Colloquium

This is the flyer for Faith Lymburner's Honors Colloquium.

Dissertation Chapters Underway: 10,000 Shards, Or Opening And Activating Depth: Handicraft, Value, And The Work Of Art (Shards 00000-00001), Christopher Southward, Christopher Southward

Comparative Literature Faculty Scholarship

Dissertation Chapters Underway: 10,000 Shards, Or Opening and Activating Depth: Handicraft, Value, and the Work of Art (Shards 00000-00001), Christopher Southward

New Members, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

Mum00705 Gary Hawkins Multimedia Collection, Danielle N. Townsend

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids

Physical and digital files including moving image files, audio, photographs, small manuscripts, and ephemera related to the films Joe and The Rough South of Larry Brown created by filmmaker Gary Hawkins.

Καθαρός, The Pure: Setting Narrative In The Fourth-Century Roman Empire, Emma Branstetter

Honors Program Projects

This thesis illustrates the development of the Christian historical fiction novella named Καθαρός set in the early fourth century of Christian history closely following the events of the Great Persecution and its long-term effects on Christian communities in Asia Minor and North Africa. Previous Christian novels set in the Roman era primarily focus on the first century, and with the significant thematic potential found in later centuries after the life and resurrection of Christ, I embarked on this writing project. The research that affects my narrative is separated into four categories: the history and effects of Diocletian’s Great Persecution, fourth-century …

One Last Month, Or Clancy's Time-Box, Safiyya Bintali

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

One Last Month is a young adult (YA) novella of roughly forty-three thousand words aimed at readers in middle school and in early high school grades. Structurally, it is an “ensemble Bildungsroman”, wherein all the main characters—rather than just one—embark on journeys of emotional growth and are given significant plot focus. Through the characters, One Last Month focuses on the importance and influence of non-romantic love, specifically through homosocial relationships between the novella’s male characters. It also touches on the process of grief beyond the Kübler-Ross structure and, though more subtly, emotional expression in young men. Through one of the …

A Short On Time Short Story Contest: Inspiring Creativity In The Library, Alexandra Boris

UT Libraries Faculty: Other Publications and Presentations

This chapter is a case study on the impact of a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) a short story writing event and contest in an academic library setting. National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is an international event which takes place in the month of November. During NaNoWriMo Participants from around the world attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days with the end product being a first rough draft of a novel. Many famous authors even participate in this challenge such as Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus, and Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants.

This chapter …