Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Decadent Gothic: The Horrors Of An Urban World, Kyle Willis

Honors College

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and understand the rapid popularity of horror literature in the 1880s and 1890s through a literary style known as decadent Gothic. To do this, I will analyze two keystone texts of the style: Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. This analysis will be done using a framework of London’s nineteenth-century urbanization to understand the represented fears in both texts. This thesis shows that urbanization created a decentralized environment full of frightening stimuli, and that decadent …

Re: Leapt Into Rain, A Story And Disquisition, Lukas Norment

Honors College

Re:Leapt Into Rain is a mystery novella written by a Civil Engineering major detailing a murder that occurs during a writer’s retreat. Alongside the murder, a story about the desire for fame and recognition in a world where the common man is forgotten is told in the mind of a young writer as he investigates the crime. The preceding disquisition goes into the conception of the murder plot, creation of characters, and the process of writing the story. In addition, the author provides a brief overview of the evolution of mystery writing, pays respect to his inspirations, and reflects on …

People Eater, Lilas Verrill

Honors College

Monsters have persisted in literature throughout human culture serving the role as the living embodiment of our greatest fears. Based on that definition, we should have no reason to want to offer them our sympathy, our understanding, our love, yet we see them written with depth, complexity, even humanity, time and time again. The monster is more than just what scares us. They can be difficult to understand - foreign and strange, but if we take the time to look a little deeper, we may find part of ourselves staring back. This thesis explores the role the “monster” plays as …

The Ghost Of Amritsar, Joe Horne

Honors College

The Ghost of Amritsar is a historical-fiction novel set in the British Raj during the first half of the 20th century. Through the lens of a Punjabi revolutionary, this thesis explores some of the roles played by the diverse identities of the Indian subcontinent during the Indian independence movement and the violence that followed the Partition of 1947. By observing the history of India and the British Raj, The Ghost of Amritsar attempts to analyze the period’s violence with a human, empathetic, approach.

The One Way Bridge, Robert Hebert

Honors College

The One Way Bridge is a post apocalypse slice of life novel about seven survivors of a mysterious world ending event known as “The Silence.” The story primarily follows Lieu, a young transgirl and the only child among the seven, as she learns more about her found family and about herself in a world that has already ended. It explores the themes of loneliness, grief, self loathing and love, and the inevitable necessity of change.

The Hate Within, Kora Kukk

Honors College

A novel in its beginning stages, The Hate Within (May 2021) is the product of discovering a way to be able to eloquently combine biomedical engineering with creative writing which will intrigue young adult readers. This thesis contains the first few chapters of the story along with an additional journal entry, the story’s outline with a list of plot events, and a disquisition exploring the motivation and methodology behind creating this thesis.The novel is about a junior in high school named Alaita. She is a super sweet, kind, and popular girl in school until one day she is diagnosed with …

Madonna, Monster And Other Stories: Surrealist Short Fiction, Katherine Skvorak

Honors College

Surrealist literature has a long history of excluding female writers from the conversation, and as a result, women surrealists often wrote to critique the male/female binary and examine the oppressive forces denying their work. Madonna, Monster and Other Stories acts as a continuation of the female surrealist legacy and a further exploration and critique of invisible authorities that govern societal standards, create belief systems, and control logic and reason. Using methods created by the surrealist movement, such as the Exquisite Corpse exercise, image collaging, and automatic writing, these stories embrace the unconscious, the dreamlike, and the uncanny to break down …

Dice Hearts And Other Islands, Bailey O'Brien

Honors College

This collection of fiction, cumulatively Dice Hearts and Other Islands, explores both the isolation of islands and the connections that can be made between them. While these islands can be the physical landmasses of the sea, in this collection islands also refer to the isolated selves of the characters. Inspired by Elizabeth Strout’s narrative style in her novel Olive Kitteridge, the short stories in this collection similarly unveil the two main characters through stories bridged with connections. The latter half of this collection, a play and a monologue, are influenced by the playwright John Cariani. As are the …

Fishers Of Men, Matthew Tieszen

Honors College

In writing Fishers of Men, I have had several goals, the first of which is to explore what it means to be human through the experiences of super-humans and supernatural creatures. Secondly, I want to create a world that is recognizable and believable as Earth despite the influence of the supernatural. Finally, I want to represent the presence of the poetic in the everyday.

Fishers of Men takes place in near-future New York City. Ravaged by a severe hurricane, much of the city is in ruins. The Bronx has been hit hardest out of the still-habitable portions of the city, …

The Space Explorer, Rachel A. Carter

Honors College

An anthology of short stories, poems, prose, and imitations. These writings explore the idea of space, but not in the “final frontier” connotation. The concept of space presented is that of personal and mental; writings that emerge from revealing internal thoughts and feelings. In addition, The Space Explorer builds upon individual aspects to contemplate more general topics.

Such writings will include: imitations of Italo Calvino’s Invisibile Cities; a short story about a man so desperate to keep his farm from bankruptcy he decides to traffic drugs; short glimpses of thoughts in the form of haiku; and many more.

A Creative Writing Honors Thesis: Guardians Of Alyataus, Kelsey K. Flynn

Honors College

This is a creative writing thesis. It is a novel of roughly 55,000 words that is intended for the reading audience of ages 12-16. It is in the genre of medieval/fantasy/adventure. This literary work takes its inspiration from many young adult authors and is intended to inspire youths in a way of moral development. The protagonist begins the story as someone of questionable morality, and finishes the piece a considerable more moral person. It has been made to help others learn about things such as discrimination, racism, and sexism. This novel also includes issues such as bullying and questioning of …

Of Fau?Ty Logic And Point?Ess Journeys A Collection Of Short Stories, Jared Record

Honors College

Preface

This thesis includes an explanatory work consisting of the author's thoughts

concerning the stories as a collection and individually. This piece appears after the

stories, and it is recommended that the stories be read first. However, you may prefer to

consult each respective section of the explanation before continuing to the next story.