Creative Writing Commons^™

Gretchen's Family, Barbara A. Soard

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Barbara A. Soard in December of 2008.

Homefront, Stacy Elaine Pratt

Dissertations

This collection of poetry and essays explores the nature of marriage, time, and human experience. Many of the pieces center on the author's experience as the wife of a soldier deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Others use scientific and mathematical imagery to illustrate spiritual concepts.

The Sins Of Kalamazoo, A Full-Length Play Based On The Works Of Carl Sandburg, Christine Iaderosa

Dissertations

The Sins of Kalamazoo , is a creative work, a frill-length play adapted from the poem of the same name and other works by Carl Sandburg. This playfollows a nonlinear storyline based on images suggested by Sandburg's poem as well as portions of the city of Kalamazoo's history.

"The Sins of Kalamazoo", poses the question: "I hear America, I hear, what do I hear? America's national narrative is made up of both the shining promise of the future and of the recognition of the decay as its cultural identity becomes fragmented through time. The theatre provides an exceptional cultural space …

Circumnavigation, Vincent Reusch

Dissertations

This creative work, a novel, set in the late 1980s, tells the story of twenty-seven-year-old Davison Johnson (Davi), as she sails around the world in a solo race. For Davi, sailing is more than a challenge, however; it is an escape. On her previous year-long sail, she sailed away from the guilt of her non-action as her Cambodian student, Chanthavy, was abducted from a market in Siem Reap, where Davi was working as an English teacher. Now, she is sailing away from the uncomfortable reality of her older brother's slow death to AIDS. Her brother, Peter, does not disappear as …

At Home In The World : The American Middle-Class House As A Twenty-First Century Public Square, Kathleen Holt

Dissertations and Theses

Using personal narrative, interviews, and research, this thesis project looks at how the middle-class American home has been transformed, by people like me, into a modem-day public square.

Intimacy, Elizabeth Knapp

Dissertations

In one of his finest poems, "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower," William Carlos Williams writes: "It is difficult / to get the news from poems / but men die miserably everyday / for lack / of what is found there." Earlier, his contemporary, W.H. Auden, had made his famous claim that "poetry makes nothing happen." While the views of the two great modernists appear to be at odds with each other, they are in fact two sides of the same argument, the yin and yang at the center of all true art. For what these poets saw as critical to both …

Metamorphosis Of Rubbish: Eduardo Paolozzi's General Dynamic F.U.N., Michelle L. Paquette

MALS Final Projects, 1995-2019

This project incorporates the production of written materials that support a proposed art exhibit of curated selections from Eduarao Paolozzi's General Dynamic F.U.N. print series, a holding in the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery' s permanent collection. Included in this project are reproductions of the curated artwork, a catalog introduction, introductory wall text and exhibit labels, and four creative essays.

Eduardo Paolozzi was a forceful proponent in the 1950s-1960s of the appropriation of American pop cultural iconography for works of art. His work bridged formal Surrealism and the inception of the Pop Art movement in Britain. The …

The Chase, Dwight Mccaulsky

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The Chase is a bildungsroman novella that chronicles the challenges that Winston McKenzie faces after he is fired from Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation Television Station. It is a fictional account of Winston's dramatic experiences in overcoming his fears and chasing his dream, with the help of his two childhood friends, during 2007' s Hurricane Dean. Although it is fictional, the story is embedded in research that examines the development, patterns and types of hurricanes, as well as the severity of their impact on the Caribbean islands. The research component of this story serves to strengthen the plot, deepen the characters and …

About Love, Kerri Ann Quinn

Dissertations

About Love is a novella and a collection of short stories written at the University of Southern Mississippi. It is accompanied by a critical preface.

Parliament Of Owls, Allison Renee Riddles

Dissertations

In this work of poems, I experiment with different forms (villanelles, sonnets, cinquains, sestinas, prose poems, and free verse) to create an original accompanying space for the existence of my speakers. I also use many of my poems to illustrate moments, feelings, and scenarios of relationships as well as place new perspectives on poems based on the work of other poets. Parliament of Owls provides an array of vistas on relationships, loneliness, and triumph.

Catch A Fire Catch Afire: An Understanding Of Distance And Its Meaning, Luciana Amodeo

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project is a collection of my poetry written and edited during three years of study and living while at Syracuse University. It is the attempt of a young woman to widen a specific avenue of self-discovery while working on my talents and skills as a writer and poet. Catch a Fire Catch Afire: An Understanding of Distance and Its Meaning is my pursuit of deconstructing how I become aware of: distance from myself, distance from my loved ones, distance from God, distance from places and distances from where I am at any given point in my life. The process …

Four Short Stories About A Four Letter Word, Michelle Tan-Torres

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis falls under the creative category of the Honors Capstone Project and is a compilation of four short stories all written within the past year and a half. It draws from the author’s educational background of English Textual Studies and the screenwriting track within the Television/Radio/Film major. It combines the learned technical aspects of the English language from the former and the creative, story-telling techniques from the latter.

Though the author has always been an avid writer, both academically and leisurely, it wasn’t until the summer of 2007 after sophomore year of college that she became interested in short …

We Become Delicate Boats: Poems And Essays, Deja Anne Earley

Dissertations

My collection of poems and essays, We Become Delicate Boats, takes inspiration from a broad range of sources that shift into each other: paintings, pop culture, literary figures, dreams, relationships, faith, family, history. For example, some poems throw together unexpected bedfellows, like Kafka's Gregor Samsa and Marie Antoinette; others are anecdotal, like one that describes going on a blind date with a man who actually turns out to be blind, some re-imagine stories we already know, like one in the voice of Medusa, talking about which occasions call for her various snake "wigs." Although quite a few pieces are playful, …

Marathon, Ohio, Alan Guido Rossi Jr.

Dissertations

Marathon, Ohio is an original collection of fiction, accompanied by a critical introduction. All of the stories were written between 2005 and 2008 at the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers. The stories are arranged for a thematic and formal effect, rather than by chronology.

We'll Hang Ourselves Tomorrow, Samuel Brendan Ruddick

Dissertations

This is a collection of short stories. They are all first person narratives. Most of them are told by men in their late twenties to mid-thirties. A couple of them are told by boys on the verge of adolescence. I can not tell you what they are about. I can tell you that they are very sad. I can also tell you that they are full of hope and wonder. Hence the title, a line taken from Godot. The reference to suicide might sound grim, but I would argue that if the world were without hope, we would hang ourselves …

Union: Interviews With Employees From The Holiday Inn Of Liverpool, Ny, Mary Gallagher

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Although working class issues are not invisible in academia, it seems less common to hear them from the members of the working class themselves. There are many scholars who speak for them, but not exactly with them. This project allows five blue collar employees of the Holiday Inn located inLiverpool,NY to speak for themselves about the work they do and the union in which they participate. Liverpool’s Holiday Inn is the only union hotel in theSyracuse area, so this project also explores what it means to have unions in the hotel industry. This project presents the stories of five employees …

Peace-Weavers And The Soldiers Who Court Them: The Sexual Development Of Women In Shakespear's Plays, Sara Ben-David

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This paper moves beyond current psychoanalytic readings of the women in Shakespeare's plays as either Mother or Other to consider instead the extent to which their sexual development from girlhood into womanhood rehearses what Jacques Lacan describes as man's progression out of the Mirror Stage, through the acquisition of language and the recognition of sexual difference, and into a unified subjectivity. The author argues that Shakespeare's own understanding of sexual difference is predicated, in the case of femininity, upon the model of the feminine peace-weaver which he would have found in Greek mythology, particularly in Ovid's Heroides. It is with …

The Reality Of Happily Ever After: Charlotte Bronte's Revision Of Fairy Tales In Jane Eyre, Sarah Rice

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis analyzes Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre through the lens of fairy tale stories, investigating the parts of Jane’s story that seem to parallel stories such as “Bluebeard” and “Cinderella”. It argues for a revisionist view of fairy tales as created by Bronte and discusses how the usage of fairy tale elements helps to further the plot and sociocultural messages of Jane Eyre.

You Will Come Safe From The Sea, Peter J. Geye

Dissertations

Set against the Minnesota North Shore of Lake Superior, "You Will Come Safe From the Sea" examines the lives of Olaf and Noah Torr, a father and son whose long estrangement began after Olaf survived a shipwreck on Lake Superior. Thirty years after the wreck, Olaf is dying of cancer and has asked his son home to help him die. Over the course of two weeks in November, the protagonists learn each other's lives and summon the courage to forgive. Multiple stories-within-the-story evolve, including the harrowing account of the wreck of the SSRagnarek (Olaf s ore boat), and Noah's own …

Ordinary Apocalypse, Anthony Villella

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Work of short fiction, in which a young man, struggling with contempt for his family and himself, makes a terrible mistake and is forced to deal with who and what he has become.

American Suburban, James Michael Ashworth

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

A collection of poetry that examines contemporary American suburban life through the author's reflections on his own working class consciousness and aspirations for a middle class lifestyle.

Gulf, Daniel Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea, the narrator speaks of the healing power of the Gulf in a literal manner: the waters of the Gulf of Mexico heal the wounded hands of the fisherman. The seventeen stories in the following collection examine Hemingway's concept on other levels, focusing on the human ability--or lack thereof--to bridge psychological gulfs, and to find emotional healing. Three major currents run through the lives of the characters in Gulf: difficulties in relationships, struggles with identity, and a sense of being haunted by the unexplained. As the stories progress, the healing waters …

Ordinary Madness, Jill Criswell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ordinary Madness: A Memoir is an exploration of the chaotic trials and tribulations of growing up, of the sensitive, overly-imaginative child I was, trying to navigate her way through a world full of people who didn't seem to understand her, including unsympathetic adults, merciless playmates, and confused relatives. Set in the tiny farming town of Palatka, Florida, and spanning from early childhood memories to adolescence, the memoir delves into the realm of tragicomic youthful experiences with dead pets, bathroom graffiti, mock crucifixions, and other strange mishaps. The prose of Ordinary Madness is inspired by the small-town innocence of Haven Kimmel, …

The Edge Of Things, Robin Koman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Edge of Things is what I like to call a love song to the dispossessed. Each of the eight stories in the collection is an examination of the lives of women who are exiled from modern American consumer culture, whether by circumstance or by choice. This separation brings them heartache, risk, and sometimes even hope. The collection is fueled by the landscape of Florida, observed at its most beautiful and most corrupted, from highways, landfills, and trailer parks to housing developments, gardens, and secret forests. Setting is a constant source of revelation, the external landscape offering insight into the …

Five Kingdoms, Kelle Groom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Five Kingdoms. (Under the direction of Don Stap.) Five Kingdoms is a collection of 55 poems in three sections. The title refers to the five kingdoms of life, encompassing every living thing. Section I explores political themes and addresses subjects that reach across a broad expanse of time--from the oldest bones of a child and the oldest map of the world to the bombing of Fallujah in the current Iraq war. Connections between physical and metaphysical worlds are examined. The focus narrows from the world to the city in section II. The theme of shelter is important to these poems, …

Mousike, Robin Moorhead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Music Etymology: Middle English musik, from Anglo-French musike, from Latin musica, from Greek Mousikê, any art presided over by the Muses, especially music. This collection is a celebration of imagination, music, and everyday experience. It is a constant quest for new and different. It tackles the simplest of moments, Tai Chi on the Porch, with the most complex, Death-Sitting, it pulls from the abstract, The Secret Lives of Requiems, and the concrete, Driving Past Orange Groves on My Way to Work. Influences on this collection are W.S. Merwin, for his imagination and foundness of language, Philip Levine, because of his …

The Eight-Dollar Bill, Wendy Stiles-Tardieu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"The Eight-Dollar Bill" is a collection of tales that explores human isolation and displacement accented by the backdrop of magic and mystery. The characters are often cynical and disenchanted while harboring deeply suppressed longings. They are guided by strange events and circumstances that ultimately transform their world-views. Each story provides a window into an ordinary life at the moment it slips into the extraordinary. The common thread of loneliness and loss runs throughout the collection, explored with multiple points of view and interconnected plots that link characters and places. The title story follows a divorced, detached banker who is jolted …

Angels And Demons: Christina Rossetti’S Goblin Market As A Social Critique Of The Victorian Ideal Of The “Angel In The House” And The Pre-Raphaelites’ Response To That Ideal, Melissa Adams

Theses and Dissertations

Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market presents a subversive critique on the socially constructed dichotomy of Angel versus Demon as depicted in Pre-Raphaelite artwork, Dante Gabriele Rossetti’s poetry, and Coventry Patmore’s poem Angel in the House. An analysis of Goblin Market in relation to Patmore’s poem and the Pre-Raphaelite paintings The Annunciation, Ophelia, Lady Lilith, Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses, and Sibylla Palmifera and Dante Gabriele Rossetti’s poems “Soul’s Beauty” and “Body’s Beauty” illustrate the ways in which Rossetti presents a counter-image that breaks down this socially constructed dichotomy. This is additionally supported by an exploration …

The Re-Conception Of Cate, Cortney Palmacci

Department of Writing and Communication Theses

No abstract provided.

The First Act, Angela Hunt

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The First Act is a creative thesis which explores the boundaries of biography and autobiography, fact and fiction, as the life of my mother, Deborah Wolfe, and my own, intersect in prose and drama. My purpose in writing this thesis was to examine and seek an understanding of my own relationship with the past and the present, as I explored the roots of my family history, specifically through the eyes of my mother, while using aspects of my family’s West Virginian and Mormon heritage. By reading the following story, you will, in a way, go on that journey with me …