Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Facing The Wreck: Death, Optimism, And The Fragmented Form, Rachael Marie Schaffner
Facing The Wreck: Death, Optimism, And The Fragmented Form, Rachael Marie Schaffner
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Walter Benjamin described history as a winged angel who faces backwards, staring perpetually into the past as the violent winds of destiny carry him into the future (Illuminations). Despite a western, post-enlightenment myth of eternal progress, the wreckage of human contributions to history is clearly evident in our 21st-century understanding of anthropogenic impact on global ecology. In the context of these ecological crises (and the resulting political and economic questions), postmodern novels reveal a powerful ability to imagine different ways of living and interacting with the world. This thesis traces the relationship between fragmentation, death, and liminal experiences …
Still Circling The Sun, Stefan Rafael Delagarza
Still Circling The Sun, Stefan Rafael Delagarza
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This work is a collection of traditional and experimental short stories that explore dynamic human relationships in a variety of settings: a bunker, a beach, and a family home, to name a few. Each character is on a journey to find deeper meaning in his or her life, and oftentimes, this means finding a path to forgiveness.
You Can't Get There From Here: Movement Sf And The Picaresque, Robert Glen Wilson
You Can't Get There From Here: Movement Sf And The Picaresque, Robert Glen Wilson
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation examines the crisis of authenticity in postmodern culture and argues that contemporary science fiction, specifically the subgenre of Movement SF, has evolved a unique answer to this crisis by adopting, perhaps spontaneously, the picaresque narrative structure. Postmodern fiction has a tenuous relationship with the issue of authenticity, such that the average postmodern subject is utterly without true authenticity at all, alternately victim to the socioeconomic conditions of his or her culture and to the elision of the self as a result of the homogenizing effects of advertising, television, etc. Postmodern SF also carries this bleak perception of the …