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Theses/Dissertations

Communication and the arts

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

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Full-Text Articles in Creative Writing

Learning To Speak: Poems, Celina A. Gomez May 2015

Learning To Speak: Poems, Celina A. Gomez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This project is a collection of poetry that weaves together past, present, and the hopes of a future that causes change. It is set in South Texas and discusses borders spanning from social class, language, and identity. The collection primarily focuses on the Chican@ voice and the shame that comes from the borderlands. I have drawn from the Rio Grande Valley as a source of inspiration while also using family experiences, my own reaction to shame, and the possibilities of an empowered voice.


Doc And The Chimera Conspiracy, Jesus Beltran Ii May 2015

Doc And The Chimera Conspiracy, Jesus Beltran Ii

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Doc and the Chimera Conspiracy, is a story that takes place in a world which diverged from our own in 1861 and led to a cooperation between the stoic science of Europe and the holistic science of indigenous people around the world. It is because of the cooperation that there is an explosion in advancements of science and technology. One of these advancements is the creation of Clones and human/animal genetic creations known as Chimera. I tell the story of Jack (a.k.a. Doc) a Chimera who lives in this present day, alternative Earth. The story teeters on the edges of …


Queer Monsters, And Bruno & His Speaking Queers, Charles R. Mcgregor May 2015

Queer Monsters, And Bruno & His Speaking Queers, Charles R. Mcgregor

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This multi-genre thesis spans across nonfiction (Queer Monsters), poetry (Bruno & His Speaking Queers), and fiction (A Queer Empire Named Eden) in an attempt to break down the categorical control the hegemonic powers like to assert over not only the arts, but gender and sexuality as well. The creative pieces are unapologetically polemic tackling queer issues and the newfound surge in acceptance for queers across the United States. The creative works question how far queers should assimilate into a hegemonic system that was built with heteronormativity enshrined as one of its cornerstone pillars. The nonfiction piece tracks the author’s own …


Last Breath, Marshall James Saenz May 2014

Last Breath, Marshall James Saenz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Last Breath is a Gothic Web Series about a girl who recreates her identity while recovering her lost memory. She discovers dark family secrets and a rigid society that is as equally imprisoning as her room. Ultimately, she engages in a game of intrigue, putting her family name and soul at stake. The story incorporates traditional Gothic and Southern Gothic influences described by Bailey, De Vore et al., Radcliffe, and others. The issue of format is analyzed using insights by Felicia Day, Syd Field, Tennessee Williams, and Robert McKee. The Web Series remains a pioneering medium. Shows such as The …


I,Metaboy, Mario Leal Jr. Dec 2013

I,Metaboy, Mario Leal Jr.

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

I,metaboy is a stage play about a young homosexual couple, one a soldier and the other a writer, during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s and the struggles they encounter in their relationship when the soldier marries a woman to pass in the military. The story follows in the tradition of other Queer literatures that explore the state of the trope of the homosexual male within his given historical period. This historically places the identity. I,metaboy is based on an amalgamation of imagery from a variety of media (theatre, literature, TV, film, social policy, historical texts, myths, …


Special Delivery, Jacob M. Guerra Dec 2013

Special Delivery, Jacob M. Guerra

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Special Delivery is a play that focuses on gender roles, specifically that of the Latino male in today’s culture.


Another Sort Of Life: A Novel, Andrew S. Hollinger May 2012

Another Sort Of Life: A Novel, Andrew S. Hollinger

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the critical introduction of this thesis, I examine the academic and creative impulses that helped me to complete this novel. In particular, I detail my seemingly nonlinear course of study as I planned, wrote, and reflected on this novel draft. This work required significant research and study outside the field of creative writing: health care systems, cancer, shame, vulnerability, guilt. I discuss at length the processes by which I became knowledgeable of these subjects, and how even after the first draft of the creative work was completed, I continued to create a more nuanced and sophisticated concept of my …


The Last Orchard, Caleb David Camacho May 2012

The Last Orchard, Caleb David Camacho

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Last Orchard is a screenplay about two rival groups of ten-year-olds in 1989 Pharr, Texas. Their elementary school conflicts create a neighborhood war within their mobile home park, coinciding with the entire park's wide eviction and land ownership crisis. The story is written with a mythic fiction approach – a method I learned through Carl Jung's and Joseph Campbell's works on archetypes, mythology, and the hero's journey; it is a practical tool for storytelling. The Last Orchard is based on Homer's Iliad: the Trojan War, its heroes, and gods. Some plays and numerous films have their mythic counterparts, along …


After “Borderlands” The Making Of An Academic Chola: Poems, Veronica Sandoval May 2011

After “Borderlands” The Making Of An Academic Chola: Poems, Veronica Sandoval

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This poetry collection is by a Mexican American spoken word, performance poet, Lady Mariposa, from Sullivan City turned Chican@ feminist after coming to terms with her mestizaje through Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza. In Lady Mariposa’s journey as an “Academic Chola,” the term “chola” articulates her Chican@ identity and creates a new space in academia by using “chola” as a hybrid of identity and style in the formation of her poetics. Her poetry can also be called pocho, pocha, Tex-Mex and code switches. She is inspired by Chican@ literature and history, lowriders, cholo culture, cholas, jazz, hip …


Poeta Power: The Poetic Journey Of La Erika: Poems, Erika Marie Garza-Johnson Dec 2010

Poeta Power: The Poetic Journey Of La Erika: Poems, Erika Marie Garza-Johnson

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This is a collection of poetry set in the borderlands of deep South Texas. The poems take as their subject Chican@ identity, family, the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, Edcouch-Elsa, Texas, cancer, sexuality, Chicana feminism, childbirth and children, marriage, education, folklore, epithets, among others. As a cycle, they represent the poet‘s development through key stages in her life, including childbirth, marriage, and death of a parent. Many poems in this collection also reflect the linguistic diversity of the U.S.-Mexico border through the poet’s use of code-switching and Tex Mex.


Angel Walking: A Documentary, Jesse F. Garza May 2010

Angel Walking: A Documentary, Jesse F. Garza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This creative thesis is divided into two parts: “The Critical Introduction” & “Angel Walking: A Documentary Screenplay.” In the “Critical Introduction to Angel Walking: A Documentary” I define the modes used and how similar documentaries and movies have helped me formulate a stronger story to showcase cerebral palsy from a 12 year old Latino’s perspective. I discuss how filming the documentary was an engaging process and led me to find a connection with the subject. This leads to how the development of writing the screenplay is somewhat of a “backward-process.” Therefore, the second half of this creative thesis is the …