English Language and Literature Commons^™

Big Nothing: A Story About Bicycles And The Girls Who Ride Them In The Heart Of West Texas, Keziah Staska

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Their one-way road trip had started the day before when they left their home in San Bernardino for the final time. Paisley was afraid of moving away from the city she grew up in, but not for the same reasons many children her age would be. . So, her social life wasn’t her primary concern when it came time to abandon her home. Instead, she was afraid to leave San Bernardino because she had memorized all the perfect bike routes within a thirty-mile radius. On the other, the fear that their new home would have insufficient routes and roads compared …

Ecofeminism In J.R.R. Tolkien’S The Lord Of The Rings, Stephanie Kroneiss

Multidisciplinary Studies Theses

Ecofeminist fiction merges the principles of ecological and feminist fiction, not only linking the oppression of women and the natural world by patriarchal cultures, but furthering the notion that the future survival of the planet and of humanity can only be accomplished through remedying the inequitable and oppressive treatment of both. Although not all ecofeminist fiction directly advocates for this philosophy, the most effective tales are those which ultimately culminate in establishing within the reader an undeniable connection between humans and the natural world, as well as an understanding of the need for balance between the feminine and masculine aspects …

Gods Among Men, Christian Burgos

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract Gods Among Men is a creative text that functions critically to dissect the genre of superhero fiction and bring forth critiques of our culture of worshipping celebrities and political figures. I cite Woody Evans’ work in my critical introduction as being central to my project. Evans puts forth the idea that superheroes are inherently conservative because they are reactive agents that do not proactively change anything. They instead maintain the status quo. Villains, on the other hand, try to effect change for a different end, one they deem better for society. Through the use of characters, this text demonstrates …

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 …

Delivering Extinction, Tatum Cordy

Honors College Theses

Living during a human extinction is something no one is prepared for. No one thought humans would last this long. Even the sun dies eventually. A child’s drawing with a dripping smile. Sun rays heating soil into dust, melting metals, and large pine trees would light like matches. Smoke would rise into the air blocking out everything but the fires taking over the once livable landscape of Earth. Then, it would be over. The sun would explode. Simple and quick, painless for the few who wouldn’t try to resist their demise. Too bad humans were a few million years early. …

Required Reading: The Role Of The Literary Scholar In Mapping Difference And Prompting Interest In Distant Destinations, Sue Norton

Articles

Taking account of research into the relationship between the reading of narrative fiction and niche tourism, this article speculates on the role of the university lecturer of literature in shaping the touristic desires of students. It is especially interested in the influence of European based lecturers of American fiction as they stimulate the geographic imaginations of their learners. Since cultural capital accrues through the reading of serious works of literature, the influence of lecturers is likely to have some bearing on the eventual travel destinations of university graduates prompted to seek out the material locations that they have read about …

Falling For A Cornish Maid, Ella Wallsworth-Bell

The Mythic Circle

It’s the girl’s blue eyes that hook me in. She sits at the back of the pub, staring at me through a sea of cigarette smoke and a chatter of voices, incessant as waves on rocks.

Read by Adrian Watts

Betrothal, Lawrence Buentello

The Mythic Circle

Grayson first saw her as she rode from the trees of the forest beyond his small house. The sun, with the last of the light it threw over the hills to the west, illuminated her astride her horse in burnished gold and yellow streaks.

Read by Phillip Fitzsimmons

What Iphigenia Knows, Ama Kirchner

The Mythic Circle

1. Iphigenia is in a void. The space surrounding her is not black or gray, nor is it faded light that tapers off at the edges of her vision.

Read by Victoria Gaydosik

Epic, David Sparenberg

The Mythic Circle

A back-to-the-future Shamanic telling for public recitation Sing in me, Muse, the epic tale of that Earth daughter who shook the foundations of the Dark Towers and challenged in combat the dread lords of tyranny and their master the Patriarch of Death. Before the Book, back in The Dreaming— over eons of Shaman Lore—it is attested that light is restoration for those who are eaten by their own shadows and fire is the bane of phantoms. From somewhere here, Muse, begin.

Read by David Sparenberg

Troll, Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

The Mythic Circle

Once upon a time there lived a troll who guarded a tollbooth on a bridge.

Read by Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

Working Title, S. Dorman

The Mythic Circle

Mark Twain had gone into outer darkness on a comet, leaving his friend Jack Lewis at his desk musing on their great experience together—an awful vision of the crucifixion in which the crucified Christ was nothing but an insect.

Read by Scott Long and Steve Strickler

The Tree That Stood Forever, Mary Alice Dixon

The Mythic Circle

One day not long ago, as time is measured by trees, a woman wandered fields of thyme and lavender near a small, hard-to-find town. She was a traveler who had become lost looking for home. Her memory was lost, too.

Read by Phillip Fitzsimmons

The Dreaded Tome Of Urawn, Lee Clark Zumpe

The Mythic Circle

"Curse you, mortal," shouted the great gray dragon vexedly as the mortal on her back fidgeted nervously in his saddle. "By the gods, be still!"

Read by Kelley Logan

Equuleus Of Troy, Dc Mallery

The Mythic Circle

In the waning days of The Trojan war, as Agamemnon's Army was losing hope, the Towering Horses of the wilds of North Africa were but myth and fable to both Greeks and Trojans.

Read by Helen Taylor

I Love You, Go Away (A Novel), John Matthew Steinhafel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

I Love You, Go Away, a novel set in Milwaukee, tells the story of a twenty-two year-old nobody, Gabriel Driscoll, who meets and befriends a middle-aged, drug addicted, recluse actor, Beau Brooks. But less than six months into their friendship Beau commits suicide. At the funeral Gabriel meets a twenty-nine-year-old corporate executive, Michelle, the daughter of Beau’s long-time girlfriend. Gabriel and Michelle bond over their mutual grief and quickly strike up a romance. At the same time, Gabriel’s semi-estranged mother, Sadie, a recovering heroin addict, reaches out to him in an effort to rebuild their relationship. What follows for Gabriel …

The Need For Christian Authors In Mainstream Fiction, Ashley Renea Starnes

Masters Theses

Fiction is an effective and underutilized tool in Christian circles to implicitly illustrate Christian ideas and values to readers of other worldviews. By adopting the writing approach of authors like J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, Christian writers can enter into the broad discussion of philosophy, morality, and theology going on in popular fiction.

Course Syllabus For English 1120 - Speculative Fiction, Chad Luck

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This document contains a syllabus for a new version of the large-lecture course English 1120: Speculative Fiction. This version of the class focuses on horror fiction, in particular, and structures the course according to a series of discursive contexts crucial to that genre. So, the course is organized around five thematic units including: psychology, religion, gender, race, and science. Each of these units presents key texts in that given area and asks students to think critically about the relationship of fiction to that particular cultural context. The course, in general, cultivates in students the ability to analyze cultural objects—in this …

Satori 2020, Shannon Laurance, Sara Severson, Hailey Seipel, Mike Desch, Annette Deyo, Nicole Tompos, Jena Archer, Megan Martin, Abbey Johnson, Carly Weber, Sara Severson, Mike Desch, Kimberly Coffee, Dahlia Garofalo

Satori Literary Magazine

The Satori is a student literary publication that expresses the artistic spirit of the students of Winona State University. Student poetry, prose, and graphic art are published in the Satori every spring since 1970.

The Music Of Character Development And Point Of View, Rebecca Padgett

English Creative Writing Theses

For my thesis, I have written a novel and (accompanying analysis essay) that examines Nashville’s country music scene from Broadway to Music Row. Through the use of a third person narrator and multiple points of view, I delve into the lives of Broadway musicians, songwriters and touring artists.

Introduction To Creative Writing, Sheila Y. Maldonado

Open Educational Resources

English 220 Introduction to Creative Writing - readings and exercises in fiction, drama, and poetry

Primrose And Other Stories, Demetra Koras

Graduate Thesis Collection

Primrose and Other Stories is a short story collection that explores themes of family, loss, and legacy.

Dark Magic Part 1, Rachel Quaid

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Dark Magic is a novel that mixes old folklore with fantasy and a splash of modern day. This first part of the novel readies the readers to enter the world of the old Irish Aos Sì. Ophelia is a witch, living in the land of the fae. She signs up to help with a research study to better her chances at succeeding as a healer. Rhea is a member of the Tuatha de Danann, the fae folk who rule the land from their courts of old. She is sent by her caretaker to observe this study. Everyone knows witches and …

Pecan Grove Review Volume 20, St. Mary's University

Pecan Grove Review

Creative writings by students, faculty, and staff of the St. Mary's University community.

“How Difficult Not To Go Making ‘Reality’ This And That”: Virginia Woolf’S Record Of Representation, Julia E. Eifert

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Virginia Woolf writes in her journal in March 1929 that:

[...]Life is very solid, or very shifting? I am haunted by the two contradictions. This has gone on for ever: will last forever; goes down to the bottom of the world- this moment I stand on. Also it is transitory, flying, diaphanous. I shall pass like a cloud on the waves. Perhaps it may be that though we change; one flying after another, so quick so quick, yet we are somehow successive and continuous- we human beings; and show the light through.

Woolf obsessively journaled her anxieties concerning the linearity …

The Sunday Night Black & White 4, Sunday Night Bombers

The Sunday Night Bombers

A zine featuring black and white art and short form narrative.

Hard As Kerosene, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

This novel is set in West Africa during the 1980s and concerns one man's trip through Peace Corps, war and alcoholism.