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Crutches, James Preston Heil
Crutches, James Preston Heil
MSU Graduate Theses
The following thesis is a collection of creative nonfiction essays, poems, and short stories. The overarching theme of this body of work is Millennial-aged adults grappling with a variety of traumas both personal and global; this dovetailing of personal grief alongside international grief is meant as an artistic expression of anxiety. In other words, the question posed here is: what does a young adult make of a world that is incessantly brutal? The answer is explored in both fictional and nonfictional ways, and no definitive conclusion is given. Rather, the events of the stories contained herein are representative of the …
Beyond The Veil, Alyssa K. Malloy
Beyond The Veil, Alyssa K. Malloy
MSU Graduate Theses
Three centuries after the Veil’s destruction reunited the land of Mishnal, archaeologists make a discovery in the wild Veiled Lands that will shed light on the cataclysmic event that changed the world forever. Through their analysis of the unearthed memories in the Veiled Lands and remnants of manuscripts penned by key governmental figures, we learn about Mina, a woman with demonic heritage who knows the only way to free herself of her oppressors is by her own clawed hands and the sharpened teeth that she knows can rend flesh from her victims. The first book of the Beyond the Veil …
Brides Of The Jasmine Land: A Collection Of Short Stories Exploring Womanhood In The Middle East, Batool Alzubi
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. …
Life, Love, And Loss: Redefining The Trauma, Samantha Crystal Rae Barnette
Life, Love, And Loss: Redefining The Trauma, Samantha Crystal Rae Barnette
MSU Graduate Theses
This thesis begins with a critical introduction analyzing the use of defamiliarization and the Dostoevskian hero in literature as a catalyst for a change in perception for victims of trauma. I create a relationship between the theories of Viktor Shklovsky and Mikhail Bakhtin as applied to both my own and published works. Short stories from Carmen Maria Machado and Marly Swick and Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale help to situate my own writing within this theoretical approach. The basis of my hypothesis lies in the blurred effect that trauma can have on the individual, causing an automatic response to …
Fragmented Worlds, Fractured Families - Narrative Levels In Graphic Memoir, Henry Wilson Essman
Fragmented Worlds, Fractured Families - Narrative Levels In Graphic Memoir, Henry Wilson Essman
MSU Graduate Theses
This collection of creative writing explores the dynamics of parent-child relationships, as well as the way time can cause these roles to shift and reverse, bringing into question who has the right to tell another’s story. The individual pieces are both in the mediums of prose and graphic narrative, often focused on themes of family and trying to reconcile fractured perspectives. These works are introduced through an essay demonstrating how graphic narratives are uniquely situated to show narrative levels, and how narrative levels are key to showing the shifts in parent-child relationships and the way perspectives can differ while still …
Billion-Dollar Bride: Book 1—Godric's Academy For Young Ladies, Kaylin N. Stickley
Billion-Dollar Bride: Book 1—Godric's Academy For Young Ladies, Kaylin N. Stickley
MSU Graduate Theses
This thesis contains the first five chapters of a young adult romance novel featuring a young woman named Theadosia Lee. The plot is heavily influenced by Cinderella, and the biblical braiding technique is heavily influenced by that of Kiera Cass and C. S. Lewis. The piece was inspired by my desire to create more young adult romance novels that contain the biblical values that are sorely lacking in most modern young adult literature. I seek to write a love story that is based on mutual respect, a strong foundation of friendship, and an intentional decision to avoid sexual activities …
You Are What You Write, Yumeng Wang
You Are What You Write, Yumeng Wang
MSU Graduate Theses
This creative thesis consists of six short stories with different lengths and styles. For the introduction, I discuss how my work is influenced by various aspects of cultural background, with examples including writers from Zitkala-Ša and Richard Wright to Celeste Ng. Cultural background is the key to understand most of the characters in the different stories. After the critical introduction, readers will have a general idea of my stories with a sense of how the relationship between different groups of people shape them to act and live under the influence of their cultural backgrounds and environment they were brought up …
Swamp Boat, Gravy Boat: Memory And Place In Fiction, Kaycie Surrell
Swamp Boat, Gravy Boat: Memory And Place In Fiction, Kaycie Surrell
MSU Graduate Theses
The importance of memory to place is of particular interest to me and forms the basis for the bulk of my work. In my critical introduction I explore the work of authors and essayists who inspire my fiction work through their focus on place and memory. Specific authors include Sandra Cisneros, David Sedaris, and Pam Houston. Through my short fiction pieces I weave together the stories of my childhood from Florida to Missouri into a quilt that covers the important pieces of my life thus far. I am interested in how people are motivated by fear to write around their …