Creative Writing Commons^™

Their Eyes Were Always Watching And Other Stories, Steve A. Booker Jr

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In this thesis, I cover discrimination in multiple forms, mostly racism and classism, through six short stories. The critical introduction includes my thought and revision process for each story. I discuss the academic works of Eugene Arya, Maggie Bowers, Lindsay Moore to explore the concepts of magical realism in my work and how it relates to the fiction of Carmen Maria Machado and N.K. Jemisin. Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of skaz and Lubomir Dolezel’s concept of the alethic alien are used in two of my shared world stories. It is my intention to show how discrimination affects multiple types of people …

England's Fairest Creatures, Madison Hart

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Set in 1616 Jacobean England, surrounding a tragic chamber pot incident, the place setting of the small fishing town of Lechlade, England, begins our story. From generations of fisherman, Elias Eaton, is the first Eaton not to bear a son. Instead, his fierce daughter in her mid-twenties, Julia, our protagonist, helps her father at the docks daily. Although Julia is a champion for women of her time, she dreams of there being something more out there for her than the town that has shackled Eatons for centuries. Julia’s mother, Sybil, is the daughter to the town baker. Her literate father …

迷霧, Long Yi Chan

Dissertations from all years

小說主要講述在傳統家庭成長的阿欣如何逐步擺脫桎梏，面對自己內心的情感和想法。阿欣從小被母親用傳統方法教育，以情緒勒索的方式教養出千依百順的她，用語言和行為操控女兒。阿欣即使已經踏入社會，仍逃不出母親所置的無形枷鎖，不斷被母親和上司、同事等人情緒勒索而感到窒息。有着敏感個性的阿欣，為了不令任何人失望，往往妥協、忍讓，以至忽略甚至壓抑自己的想法和需要，只用不治本的方式排遣不快、逃避問題。阿欣在父親去世後面對生活，慢慢明白要為自己着想、為自己的情緒、行為負責，而非單單將所有問題歸咎於同樣缺乏安全感的母親，不再逃避，逐步走出陰霾。

你，作為小說拼圖的一塊, Ka Tsun Cheung

Dissertations from all years

你就要開始閱讀〈你，作為小說拼圖的一塊〉。倒不是你期待從這這篇畢業論文獲得什麼，它只是茫茫小說中的其中一本，你聯想到閱讀經驗中那些偉大的小說，覺得它絕不會比他們優勝。所以你坐在屏幕前，以抽離、隨意的目光展開閱讀，懶洋洋地搜索論文中的一絲價值。

而當你一如既往，淡然地讀著小說開頭，你很快就糊塗了。嘮叨的敘述者聲音、任由作者擺佈的人物、唐突的觀點轉換，無一不在告訴你——故事是被人虛構的。作者想表達些什麼？我又為何必須置身小說當中？你再次翻開小說，但今次的目光，變得稍為不一樣。

蟾蜍記憶, Lok Yi Lam

Dissertations from all years

一次蝌蚪的失蹤事件，一碗不尋常的湯。

家族突然開始發生一連串的事故——爸爸後背長了一顆腫瘤，族人開始生病，嫲嫲驟然離世……

親戚們甚至開始蛻變成一副蟾蜍相貌！

幼時被迫喝下奇怪湯水的我，會不會隨他們一樣，最終變態成嘔心醜陋的蟾蜍呢？

這篇小說是一個家族變異史，也是一個都市寓言故事。

因為我相信現實世界所發生的一切，遠比故事內的情節更荒謬。

城市是冰冷的，人的心也是冷漠的。在社會的大環境下，人們逐漸異化，貪婪自私的本質暴露無遺。

即便是最親近的家人，面對物質上的爭奪與搶掠，人性自私的那一面就會顯露。

「貪婪仿佛是都市人深入血髓的記憶。」

或許一天，我們也終會在社會的泥潭裡異化成一隻隻醜陋不堪蟾蜍。

安樂, Kiu Tim Ma

Dissertations from all years

講述一喜愛規則的人，機緣巧合下前往另一個世界得到自己夢寐以求的生活，得到安樂。希望藉此故事，反思一下何謂有意義的人生，順便把自己對過往反烏托邦小說做一個小反思：衷心喜歡「烏托邦」生活的人到底是多麼令人討厭，到底算不算人。算是老生常談，但這種甘心受制於某種「無上意志」的人，挺切合中國社會，可能是過往帝制吧！假如讓人討厭小說中的人物從而反思自己有否近乎病態地遵守規則，我就當成功。

Warriors, Mothers, And Queens: Weighty Women Of Myths And Legends, Betsy Packard

Theses and Dissertations--English

Because traditional stories, myths, and legends have a patriarchal orientation, often portraying women as negative or weak characters, post-modern literary criticism calls for a feminist response. These poems are written in the genre of feminist revisionist mythology. Through the medium of poetry, women in these stories are provided with voices outside of the previously accepted patriarchal framework and challenge the exclusionary theories of Joseph Campbell. The stories are told through a perspective informed by feminist theory.

Short Story Collection, Kevin Bond

Theses and Dissertations--English

This thesis consists of four pieces of short fiction workshopped as part of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at the University of Kentucky. Themes and topics explored include familial dynamics, depictions of childhood and coming of age, solitude, adverse psychological effects of toxic masculinity, natural sphere as sanctuary and source of spiritual renewal, and sense of place.

The Tree Of Life: Observations From The Olive Grove, Kendall Lowery

Scripps Senior Theses

Scripps College is famous for its olive trees and the award-winning olive oil that they produce. However, despite the considerable age of the trees, the campus community has only harvested the annual crop of olives for the past decade. In this thesis, I set out to learn why the trees were planted on the campus in the first place. To this end, I immerse myself in the history, culture, and commerce of the olive oil industry, and ultimately use the fruit as a lens through which we can explore the colonial history of Scripps College and Southern California. In order …

Radio Rebel, Elizabeth Sperring

Scripps Senior Theses

A girl running an illegal radio station is caught and imprisoned for her crimes.

Fallible And Malleable, I Have Made It This Far, Fern Bailey

Scripps Senior Theses

This project is a culmination of lived years. Included are poems of a Confessional sort. The poems work together, thematically and through recurring images, to illustrate a progress: the progress inherent of living, making it this far.

Approaching An Untamed Poetry: Arab North American Poetry In The Classroom, Rachel Norman

Faculty Publications

This essay by Rachel Norman originally appeared in the edited volume, Teaching Asian North American Texts.

Religion, Reason And Reconciliation In Louise Gluck’S The Wild Iris, Vincent Sergiacomi

Capstone Showcase

In a world where reason is king, what is the role of faith? Louise Gluck does not claim to have an answer, but she does explore the question. The Wild Iris gives us a god who is utterly convinced of the singular appeal of faith, countered by a worshipper who finds their rational worldview too reasonable to abandon. Yet over the course of the text, neither is able to demonstrate the singular primacy of their point, both arguments leaving their arguers unsatisfied in one way or another. This paper will explore the debate between the human and divine speakers of …

Seaglass: An Animated Rejection Of Narrative Permanence, Alejandra Louise Blackmore

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how popular narrative structures imply that our reality should be stagnant, thereby leaving us as viewers unprepared for the notion of change. I introduce the term “narrative permanence” as a story structure that assumes the foundations of a narrative are absolute. These stories therefore consider structural change as a threat or abnormal. I analyzed examples such as The Simpsons and news coverage of the BP oil spill to demonstrate how popular media frames change as an unnatural occurrence that must be neutralized. My thesis then culminated in an animated short about a person living in a seaside …

Word Into Idea Online, Stephen Fried, Sam Tamburri

Open Educational Resources

This creative writing game, an online version of the pen-and paper activity "Word into Idea" -- https://academicworks.cuny.edu/si_oers/24/ -- can be played solo or in a group. Proceeding through a series of screens with word-association prompts, players compose a downloadable poem within the game and obtain a player-generated constellation of their words for additional creative work.

An Exploration Of My Undergraduate Poetry Works, Clover O'Mordha

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Throughout my years at the University of Akron, I have explored my creative writing, focusing on poetry, and developed a distinct style. There have been many influences on my poetry and I utilize several poetry aesthetics, conventions, and styles. My honor project will explore my poetry by referencing a 30-page portfolio of my collected undergraduate works.

Anthropomorphize, Amie S. Reilly

English Faculty Publications

Jules is twenty-nine. She is sitting in her cold car, in a parking garage attached to the building where she works, in the concrete and leaded glass city of New Haven, the only anthropologist involved in a study of capuchin monkeys. The monkeys are being taught to exchange coins for fruit. Most of her coworkers are men, some are psychologists, and the others are economists. The economists call the monkeys “insatiable stomachs of want” and the psychologists call them “pre-capitalistic mind models” and although she knows better, Jules calls them each by human names. In the mornings, a zoology graduate …

Squatters, Alina Cerisse Cohen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Yo Soy Rumano (I Am Romanian): An Autobiography Exploring The Effects Of Memory And Trauma On The Formation Of The Self, Andrei Bucaloiu

Honors Theses

I came to the United States from Romania with my parents when I was two years old. This moment of cultural, linguistic, and geographic separation occurred before I was able to consciously recall it, yet it constitutes a traumatic experience, in the Freudian and Lacanian sense, that defines my positionality and serves as a primary space in which I seek to develop who I am. However, regardless of how much I have developed my ability to communicate in English, it is not the language of my emotional affect. At the same time, profound expression in Romanian is not possible for …

Throwing The Snake, Michael Chitwood

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 71-72