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Take Care, Now, Evyania Constant

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Each piece in this collection explores, in some way, the intimate relationships between immediate or extended family members residing in the same households. I am interested not only in the loving relationships that living with family can inspire, but also the conflicts it can cause, ranging from slight everyday irritations to fundamental differences highlighted by the claustrophobia of sharing a private interior space. In these stories I group together siblings, husbands, wives, grandparents, and cousins, enclose them between four walls and lid them with a roof, and wait to see what emerges.

Chasing Peacocks, Jennifer Watkins

Creative Nonfiction MFA Theses

Chasing Peacocks is a collection of personal essays that explores the author's life through her travels, interactions with family, and struggles with teaching.

Self · Ish: Examining And Reshaping Filipino & Filipinx Identities Within The Continental United States And Hawai’I Via Post-Colonial Literature, Kiana Anderson

Senior Theses

This thesis explores a conversation between the “self” and Filipino culture to examine the ways the Filipino diaspora exists in literature amongst colonization and trauma. Through literary texts spanning across time and geographical locations, like Elaine Castillo’s America Is Not the Heart and Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters, I interrogate the cultural and psychic meanings associated with the concept of home within the context of these hybrid histories. By examining the neo-canonical literature of some of these authors, I interrogate their sense of self, voices and visions via the languages, symbols, cultural frameworks and emotions that are prevalent within the literary …

Open My Mouth, Annie Shi

Intertext

No abstract provided.

Everything You Don’T See, Lauren Dowling

Intertext

No abstract provided.

Intertext 2020 — Complete Issue

Intertext

No abstract provided.

Haiti And The Early American Imagination, Michael Drexler

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Equitable Design Through The Urban Museum: Catalyzing Community Revitalization And Environmental Justice In The Sweet Auburn Historic District(The New Apex Museum), Day'zhanera King

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Have you ever heard of the Black Lives Matter Movement, or B.L.M.? B.L.M. was created as a response to the resurgence of racism and xenophobic hate-crimes against Black people and their communities, often at the hands of police. It was the hate crimes plus the scape-goating of Blacks add in poverty rates, the exponentially high Black unemployment rates, and the over policing of Black neighborhoods. B.L.M. is the modern activist response to the continuance of Richard Nixon’s War on Drugs, Bill Clinton’s crime bill and the massive, and the disproportionate incarceration of Black men. B.L.M. is the representation for what …

Skin: Stories, Poems, And Essays, Amanda G. Hadlock

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis begins with a critical introduction which analyzes the use of objective correlative and varying points of view in creative writing in order to generate dialogue on cultural issues. I relate theories from Edward T. Hall, T.S. Eliot, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Lubomír Doležel to my own writing. Additionally, I situate my own multi-genre writing with work of contemporaries such as Maggie Nelson and Claudia Rankine. My hypothesis is that writers can use an objective correlative (Eliot) from the top of the cultural iceberg (Hall) as an entry point to representing deeper, more fraught cultural issues. Additionally, by experimenting with …

Brilliant Women: Prose And Poetry, Amelia Fisher

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This collection of creative writing explores themes and subjects relating to feminism, sexuality, performativity, societal woes, popular culture, and the different ways we communicate. The individual pieces often examine women’s empowerment and lack thereof. These stories, essays, and poems are introduced by a critical work situating the contents of the thesis within greater literary traditions, such as Viktor Shklovsky’s defamiliarization, which I claim can function on the structural level as well as the story level, and his theory of the Chronotope; time and place are significant threads I follow from one genre to the next to create a cohesive collection …

Poem No. 123, May 2020, Huntsville Literary Association (Huntsvile, Ala.)

POEM

The Huntsville Literary Association was founded in 1967 to provide a community for writers, readers, and artists through workshops, readings, and educational programs. One of their key contributions is the literary magazine titled POEM which showcases original writings from both established and emerging writers. This issue features poems from various writers.

Self, Emily Aguayo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a translation of Dr. Erika Almenara’s complete published collection of poetry. The original publications span a period of over twelve years of work, with books published in 2006, 2008, and 2018. The first book of poetry in this series of translations, Reino Cerrado (Closed Kingdom), explores the profound contemplations of life and how to turn those thoughts into words and put them on paper. We see images of nature, hear faint religious overtones, and feel the distress of a woman searching for a healthy relationship, and having little luck. Para evitar los rastros (To Avoid All Traces), the …

"The Thereafter", Allison Stanich

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

‘The Thereafter’ takes place in the fairy-tale world of Olim and focuses on a servant girl Dette as she learns to accept her painful past and her future as the Chosen One to save the world with the help of a cursed prince named Jean and a witch named Hester. The basis of Olim derived from the many different fairy tales that exist and their variations; extensive research revealed that many lighter, romanticized versions of the fairy tales begin with “Once” or “Once Upon a Time,” which served as inspiration for the organization ONCE, a history revisionist group in Olim …

A Path Unfolding, Sarah Lucille Parris

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

A selection from A Path Unfolding, an original young adult fantasy novel about a girl named Al, who strives to fulfil a prophecy in order to restore the natural order in the magical land of Anthe. Preceded by a critical introduction detailing the genre and craft influences on the work. The novel explores themes of truth and deception, and asks the questions of what, exactly, it means to be a ‘chosen one’.

Entre Países, Jared Steiman

Honors Theses

This collection of original poems deals with the unique experience of transnational family, particular to the international and interracial tensions of the years 2014-2020. The works focus on intimate portraits of life in the United States South, the Mexican South, and the relationship between. Love and loss feature prominently. Injustice is sewn throughout. Accompanying the original poems are a number of translations of Octavio Paz and Rosario Castellanos, as well as a craft essay detailing the process of creating this body of work.

Poser: The Nexus Of Chicanx And Punk Cinema, Christian Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

By bridging together formal characteristics from Chicanx and Punk cinema, my screenplay “Poser” follows the traditions of many filmmakers, including Jim Mendiola, Efrain Gutierrez, Luis Valdez, and Alex Cox. This thesis first distinguishes the traits that characterize each individual style, followed by the films that inspired my script, to finally how these techniques fit within my own work.

The creative decisions in my screenplay are thus examined through a lens informed by the underlying value of writing a story about marginalized segments of society. Additionally, I offer a close analysis behind the restrained approach of my story, along with the …

The Wild Diamond Diaries: Healing Alongside America's Wild Horses, Megan Emily

All NMU Master's Theses

To some, America’s free-roaming Mustangs and burros symbolize liberty and beauty. To others, these equines are feral at best, invasive at worst. They have a reputation for being useless, destructive, and untrainable. Yet my childhood horse—gifted to my family when I was three—was a gentled Mustang, W.D. Through W.D., I first encountered these horses’ kind dispositions, composure, and hardiness. After my younger sister died in a riding accident with another horse, my parents rehomed W.D. The devastating loss of both my sister and horse sparked my lifelong interest in Mustangs’ lives in the wild and journey into domestication, especially via …

Goal Drought, Stephanie Oesch

All NMU Master's Theses

Goal Drought is a collection of free verse and prose poetry that focuses on the sport of soccer. The collection explores the roles of fans and players within the sport as well as the strategy, concepts, and controversies that make up much of soccer. Beyond just the game, the collection also engages with religious concepts and the more general themes of obsession, desire for community, and the act of participating and watching performances. Physicality and personal experience also play a large role in this work, and the collection mixes both jargon and more casual and conversational language to try and …

Shift: A Brujo Story, Mark A. Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

In the distant future, a viral agent that transforms people into monsters has overrun the world. Metropolis domains now dominate the United States, using large walls to keep the dangers from entering inside. But safety is not always a guarantee. A man named Nathan uses his ability as a shape-shifting folkloric creature to make a living as a mercenary for hire in the city he lives in.

Nathan also struggles with his inner turmoil of attempting to live in a society that does not accept him while trying to deal with his past trauma that drives his life. But when …

Willing Beasts, Jose Lujan

Theses and Dissertations

Willing Beasts is a poetry collection that consists of the title poem then is divided into three sections which are named Willing Beasts of Rebellion, Willing Beasts of Desire and Willing Beasts of Groove. The first section titled Willing Beasts of Rebellion consists of poems which are of a rebellious and protest in nature. The second section titled Willing Beasts of Desire consists of poems that more personal in nature and reveal more about my life. The third section titled Willing Beasts of Groove consists of poems which are inspired by the songwriters that have influenced me as …

Pebblechild, Brenda Ochoa

Theses and Dissertations

This collection of short stories depict life moments for people that are connected through the city of Peñitas, Texas. This manuscript begins as an origin story for the city of Peñitas. According to local historians both in the past and in present times, the city of Peñitas was founded by a priest and five other Spaniards. This idea is integrated into the storyline but with a focus on the impact of a young girl, Tala. She suffers immensely through the actions of a group she refers to as the Long Beards. She has to go through a series of discovery …

Blend It Like Beckett: Samuel Beckett And Experimental Contemporary Creative Writing, Sam Nicole Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Samuel Beckett penned novels, short stories, poetry, stage plays, radio plays, and scripts—and he did each in a way that blended genre, challenged the norms of creative writing, and surprised audiences around the globe. His experimental approach to creative writing included the use of absurdism, genre-hybridization, and ergodicism, which led to Beckett fundamentally changing the approach to creative writing. His aesthetics have trickled down through the years and can be seen in contemporary works, including Aimee Bender’s short story collection The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves[1]. By examining these works …

The Poetic Process: A Poetry Collection, Kirsten Noelle Litz

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Poetic Process is a creative thesis analyzing the use of different poetic forms but focuses more on the application of them through a series of creative work.

Of Moose And Men (And Moose-Men), Henry Cavanaugh

Montserrat Annual Writing Prize

The story of a family's annual tradition of moose tracking in northernmost New Hampshire.

Chasing Destiny: A Novella, Kassandra Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chasing Destiny tells the story of Lyric Angel de la Cruz. She is the only daughter of five-time world heavyweight champion and three-time tag team champion Manuel de la Cruz and the oldest granddaughter of Julio de la Cruz, a legend in the wrestling world. For as long as Lyric can remember, her life has been surrounded by wrestling, and she wants to be involved with the business. But unlike her family that came before her. Lyric wants to create her own way in the business, however, when she tells Manuel her career path, he is furious that she would …

Tectonic, Rebecca E. Holifield

Honors Theses

Tectonic is a collection of original poems accompanied by a critical preface.

Harvest: Poems, Brittney Allen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Louise Glück wrote, “the actual making of art is a revenge on circumstance.” The risk, she goes on, is in the possibility of shame. Writing poetry then becomes an act of courage, purchased with sacrifice or loss. “Courage, in this usage, alludes to a capacity for facing down the dark forces.”

In Harvest, a poetry chapbook, the speaker takes revenge on the circumstances of her life by being blunt, bare, and brave on the page. She contends with a male-dominated society and abusive childhood as she moves into adulthood and the supposed saving grace of a marriage. The speaker confesses …

Eclipsed By Culture, Andrea Diamond

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this thesis is to explore through poetry my conflicted relationship with an abusive, narcissistic father, a father who passed down to me the after-effects of generations of inherited trauma and traditions of patriarchy. In a narrative arc unfolding through domestic scenes and deepened with metaphor, I offer readers the story of my struggle to accept the personal and psychological damage I experienced as a child, to forgive, and to achieve a measure of healing so that my experience might benefit others. Using poetry enabled me to distill elements of my circumstances that, in my lived experience, were …

The Fourth Wall, Serenity Dougherty

Theses

“The Fourth Wall” is the beginning of a fiction novel set in the comedy scene in Lincoln, NE during the #MeToo movement. The story follows a young female comedian in the scene, Kara, from the perspectives of several significant people in her life. Though the novel never inhabits Kara’s perspective directly, it seeks to give readers an intimate look at the difficulty she faces as she tries to navigate the male-dominated world of stand-up comedy during a time when the community is being forced to confront its troubling history of sweeping reports of sexual violence under the rug.

Tiny Furious Circles, Ann M. Herrington

Theses

I have had time to live and time to reflect on that living. What I have found is that certain things present themselves, over and over, wearing different skins. And though they look different, there is a certain whiff of familiarity that activates the soul’s hindbrain and pulls you close. That’s how it has been for me. Because of this — my failure to learn the first time; my need to see a thing from all its sides; my constant picking at the half-healed — certain themes repeat. And because they have come to me at different times in many …