Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Whole Headlight-Colored Night, Matthew Bryan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This collection of short fiction probes the lives of characters trying to make their home in the flat, unchanging landscape of the small towns that make up central Florida. The largely static environment reflects the rigid patterns of behavior and domesticity the characters find themselves so easily falling into. Seemingly ordinary items-a shotgun, a t-shirt, a paper bag-and the small moments that make up everyday life are imbued with significance as men and women painfully aware of their own ordinariness struggle to hold onto those fragile instances of connection, happiness, or even their own self-constructed sense of identity. The struggle …

Until The Meat Falls Off The Bone, Holly Kapherr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though this work started as a formal academic cultural study, it stretched and squirmed and became not only an examination of the cultures themselves, but how I came to fit within those cultures. By combining my experiences travelling as a child and young adult as well as learning the craft of professional cooking, the essays in this work are highly centered around food and what food means both to me and to cultures throughout the world. The structure and tone of these essays varies greatly from one to the other, all at once casual, almost conversational in one, and pedantic …

Cuban Jam Sessions In Miniature: A Novel In Tracks, Diego Rincon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is the collection of a novel, Cuban Jam Sessions in Miniature: A Novel in Tracks, and an embedded short story, "Shred Me Like the Cheese You Use to Make Buñuelos." The novel tells the story of Palomino Mondragón, a Colombian mercenary who has arrived in New York after losing his leg to a mortar in Korea. Reclusive, obsessive and passionate, Palomino has reinvented himself as a mambo musician and has fallen in love with Etiwanda, a dancer at the nightclub in which he plays—but he cannot bring himself to declare his love to her. His life changes when he …

Crashing Against The Wood, Jessica Ryan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this collection of short stories, the characters struggle to recover equilibrium in their lives that have been turned upside down. They struggle against one another, against change, and against the loss of loved ones. No matter what bonds hold the characters together, the underlying tension of change and reaction permeates their relationships and threatens what they know to be true. A theme of discontent runs in these stories. Something beneath the surface is not right, and the characters struggle to climb out of the mess their lives have become. Some of them have been stifled, like the narrator in …

Middle Ground: A Novella And Collection Of Short Stories, Laurie Uttich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This collection of fiction - a novella and a collection of short stories - focuses on the commonality of the human condition. While we create separations for ourselves by focusing on distinctions such as, religion, class, gender, and race, we are, I believe, spiritual beings sharing a human experience. My work tends to explore these distinctions and our motivations for embracing them. In the novella, Middle Ground, two sisters in alternating narrative voices share the story of their parents' struggles with separation, sobriety and cancer. Their voices, as distinct as their perspectives, explore the landscape of a family, the borders …

The Flats Of Paradise, Pamela Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Flats of Paradise is a collection of personal essays exploring the interconnectivity between humans, land, identity, and belonging. Through the perspective of my experience as a nurse, these essays probe the friction created when borders rub up against each and the comforts gained through connections both spiritual and physical. "Avoiding the Stepladder," for example, examines a near lightning strike on a mountain in relation to the potential pain caused by the human need for touch. "The Dust Trail," a meditation upon various traditions for disposing of the placenta (burning vs. burying), also looks at the problem of finding home …

Bitter Orange, Racquel Fagon

Department of Writing and Communication Theses

No abstract provided.

The Present Giver And Other Stories On Human Connections, Erin B. Waggoner

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Present Giver and Other Stories on Human Connections is a collection of seven short stories dealing with individuals that struggle to connect to another person. However, the stories also explore that these characters still feel the need to connect, stories very indicative of my own struggles with apathy and relationships. The critical analysis takes on a creative non-fiction approach as a way to show my development as a writer and how these stories relate to what I've learned through the years from my love of reading.

Silence As Insubordination: Friday And Michael K’S Wordless Weapon, A Post-Colonial Approach Toj.M. Coetzee’S Foe And Life And Times Of Michael K, Cody C. Mullins

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

While most critics of J.M. Coetzee’s fiction focus on silence as a weapon of imperial oppressive forces to subjugate representations of the "other," this thesis argues that, on the contrary, characters representing the traditional colonially oppressed use their silence as a weapon to in turn oppress the representations of imperial power. Through close reading explication and the use of the post-colonial theories of both Homi Bhabha and Edward Said, I focus on the inverted oppression, the shifting of identity, and the role of authorial authority within the novels, Foe and Life & Times of Michael K. By engaging in this …

"A Long Wonder The World Can Bear & Be" : Narrative Strategies In The Dream Songs, Cooper Childers

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis examines the narrative development of The Dream Songs while viewing Henry as the locus and the impetus of the various narrative strategies deployed therein. Through the abundance of generic and literary allusions present in The Dream Songs, Berryman's sequence functions both to engage and to interact with the Western literary canon. The first chapter of this thesis locates The Dream Songs within Petrarchan sequences. The second chapter treats Henry's and the unnamed speaker's local language and shows how their competing speech genres inform the sequence's modes. The third chapter examines the role of epic codes in creating the …

Flaming Red Wig, Carla Christina Howl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"Flaming Red Wig" is a collection of short stories and prose poems with a critical preface. Both the preface and the creative work explore notions of artifice, apposition and entering into a text (both written and character) with stillness or intrusion. I try to create an examination and communion with language on much the same level, ultimately yielding a musicality that creates a rhythmic discourse and dynamic between the significance and the notion. The title of my thesis refers to the obvious motif of artifice and the reoccurring theme of emotional pain attached to gender and humanistic role within specific …

More Than Just Books: Using Fiction To Help Young Girls Relate, Katie Michelle Simmons Laney

Honors Theses

In recent years, I have had the opportunity to work in a variety of ministry settings. One such setting brought me in contact with a girl who was in a bullying situation. In her case, she related to me action taken in her classroom by her teacher at the urging of her parents. The situation had been remedied, but she was still dealing with the emotional repercussions of having been a victim of relational aggression. In my acquaintance with the girl, I knew she enjoyed reading. Therefore, she helped to inspire my original thesis idea of learning more about the …

Of Spanish Cows, Wild Boars, Unpredictable Weather, And Other Oddities, Lydia Sanchez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this collection of connected stories, the inhabitants of the imaginary Mediterranean village of Marcenac struggle with daily situations that often take allures of a farce, simply because they occur in Marcenac. The stories explore the influence southern France's Roussillon region has on people, the way the proximity of the Spanish border and the Mediterranean shapes the inhabitants of Marcenac's daily lives, and the influence of the climate. Often, the Tramontane, the region's predominant wind, becomes a character. While some of the stories are told from a collective point of view, others reveal the inner thoughts of children and adults, …

House Of Leaves: Navigating The Labyrinth Of The Deconstructed Novel, Molly Throgmorton

Honors Theses

Ever since I learned how to read, I assumed that books must be read a certain way: open to the first page, start at the top, and read from left to right, top to bottom, page after page until the end. I thought that books have one main narrative told by one narrator, and that this narrative has a clear beginning, middle, and end. I also believed that books have clear meanings and explanations (tense). After reading Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, however, I realized that not all books are so neat and predictable.

House of Leaves is …

I Knew You When, Jami Dittus

Theses and Dissertations

Four short stories and the first quarter of a novel revolve around characters sick with want, sick of and from the worlds in which they live. They crave connection with other people, often through indirect methods, but can’t always manage the connections they make with other characters. Objects, comforting and static when people cannot be, take prominence as connection to the real world.

Break The Sky: An Exploration Of Ethics With Swords And Superheroes, Kris Miranda

Honors Theses

In an extended piece of speculative fiction (specifically, a cross between the sword-and-sorcery and superhero genres), I try to explore the complexities of ethical deliberation in difficult circumstances. Through my protagonist I also present an “alternative” to Enlightenment ethics. I’ve referred to this alternative as an “ethics of the badass and the beautiful,” a little (but only a little) jokingly. The reason for doing all of this through fiction, and not a conventional philosophical paper, is that I believe my ethical education started in stories, and it’s still in good stories and the creative exploration of concretely realized personalities (as …

Mourning Eros: Hieroglyphic Love And Loss In H.D.'S Helen In Egypt, Shauna Karine Dorotich

Theses : Honours

H.D. and Lacan both articulate a philosophy of love that exists beyond the sexual relationship. This thesis highlights the concordance between their later writings on love, with a specific focus on Lacan's Book xx; On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge, 1972 - 1973 (Encore), and H.D.'s Helen in Egypt. Initially, I address the paradox of erotic love to explicate the way fantasy results in the death of the woman within the sexual relationship. I then argue that a subject must experience a phase of mourning the fantasy of erotic love in order to progress to …

Through Windows, Sarah E. Jones

Theses

This short story collection focuses on the female perspective and expectations based on a host of influences: familial, cultural, and mythical. Even in extraordinary circumstances decisions are made about how to lives one's life. The collection explores the context in which women put their life experiences and personal relationships, and the space needed to consider these things. Readers familiar with Lorrie Moore's short fiction may find echoes of her solitary souls in these stories.

No Serenade For Spies, Cedric T. Jackson

Theses

The focus and purpose of this thesis has resulted in the culmination of a full-length novel. Since fiction is most often categorized by a specific genre, the actions and motivations in terms of characters and plot development will more than likely place this particular project in the genre of either a spy novel or action thriller. The introductory essay further elaborates on my journey as a writer, and the creative process behind the writing of No Serenade for Spies.

From the outset the goal was to create a plot-driven story with strong as well as interesting and believable characters. …

Smack In The Day Of Distemper, Nancy J. Baumann

Theses

Not available.

Rockwood Revisited: More Exciting Tales From The "Hood", James A. Clay

Theses

The fol lowing essay and two short stories introduce a sequel to the book, The Rockwood Files: Tales from the Hood, which I wrote and published in 2002. The working title of the sequel is Rockwood Revisited. The original work is a collection of inspirational short stories that tell how several courageous inner city residents struggled to rise above obstacles they faced in search of a better life. Set in the fictional neighborhood known as Rockwood Square on Chicago's Westside, the stories chronicle life experiences of several of the neighborhood's past and present residents as seen through the eyes of …

Rock Child, Deborah Garwood

Theses

Physician Lawrence "Doc" Bass lives in Ellington, Missouri. Forced to close his practice due to crippling arthritis, Doc has resigned himself to early retirement-until the day he meets Aubrey, a boy with an unusual birthmark on his back. Aubrey fits perfectly into the already quirky family of Hickcocks. He may be just a child, but strange things-good things-begin to happen whenever Aubrey is around. But not all of the Ellington folks feel the same way about him; some have an agenda for the boy. Doc, his good friend Sheriff Baines, and a host of other folks come in contact with …

Past Due: A Collection Of Poems, Byron Lee

Theses

"Past Due" is a co1lection of poems written almost entirely in free verse and almost exclusively based on personal experience. I find, at least at this point in my growth as a writer, that when I try to adhere to poetic structure, I feel confined. My style is sparse because I feel that this aesthetic best cuts to the emotion I'm trying to convey. I also love playing with line breaks, since I find that doing so can give several lines in a poem their own statement, like each poem makes its own statement even when bound in a co1Iection …

& Yet, Alexander S. Balogh

Theses

Unavailable.

Gods R Us, Alivelu Nagamani

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Around Grecian orchards. On Trojan battlefields. In Siva's realm. Inside Hanuman's heart. Of gods, demons, and others who love us, hate us, serve us, interfere with us. Of humans larger than life. When gods were not in hiding. About a space not reached via explanations. Poems in Gods R Us come from Greek/Roman and Indic myths, they retell myths, comment on myths, and refer to myths - they could not have been without myths. Distillation and attentiveness create the time needed to be one in the spirit of the poem. I range from reverential to playful.

Vision And Desire: Jim Morrison's Mythography Beyond The Death Of God, Ellen J. Greenham

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The poetry of Jim Morrison, as opposed to his lyric verse, has been the subject of little critical examination. The aim of this paper is to open up an understanding and interpretation of a mythographic landscape developed by Morrison in his response to existence in a demythologised western culture. Through the use of the Greek myth of Oedipus in its entirety, as opposed to the two most universally known events of the adult Oedipus' life, discussion here will attempt to demonstrate that Morrison developed a cohesive, holistic vision of the human condition of existence in the world, and presented a …

The Casaloma, Justin P. Burnside

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Casaloma was written to challenge held beliefs in what constitutes genre, what constitutes "selfhood," and what constitutes borders.

First, it is an examination of Rimbaud's famous line, "I is an other," which challenges the position of the "I" in relation not only to the self, but the self in relation to the world around it. This I call the poetics of the pre-positional, or prepositional relationship. This poetics is explored and tested through the voices, and the suigenerous nature of the material that constitutes the book.

Secondly, this book is meant to be an exploration of ideas that were …

Dancing In The Ashes, Vytautas Adolph Malesh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The following novel is the third draft of my creative thesis entitled Dancing in the Ashes . It is an exploration of the Detroit rave scene in its dying days, and it mixes real and imagined places and events in order to portray the essence of that time, if not the factuality. The bulk of the novel follows just over two weeks in the life of Thomas Kowalski, a drug dealer living with his parents in suburban Detroit. He parties constantly and seldom works except as necessary to keep his job at a local record store - an invaluable source …

I Hear A City: A Picture Book For Three- Four- And Five-Year-Olds, Adam Schneider

Graduate Student Independent Studies

I Hear A City is an original children's book that delineates the daily routines of a city and the people who live within it. The book is designed to be read with three- four- and five-year-olds because its content corresponds with that age group's interests and their desire to understand their surroundings. I Hear A City recounts the story of the life of a city and the universal routines that exist there. The ideas and events expressed within the book are basic and relate to young children. The life and activities of a city and its inhabitants are integrated and …