Fiction Commons^™

Review Of The Twilight World, Michael Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On Your Painted Wings, Sandra M. Ford

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to explore historical issues of Cuban restrictions on emigration through a magical realism lens. Drawing inspiration from Cuban-American writer Ana Menéndez and Columbian writer Gabriel García Márquez, this thesis focuses on family relationships, especially how grief shapes those relationships and the people in them. The thesis approaches these issues of family, grief, and Cuban emigration by weaving a more grounded central narrative with an original fairytale.

Good Patients, Susan Mesler-Evans

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis is the first 21 chapters (approximately 150 pages) of a novel, Good Patients, accompanied by a complete synopsis. Good Patients is a social satire which seeks to touch on the flaws of the American healthcare system and social media culture, and how these two intersect for many people. To prepare for writing, I spent my first semester completing a guided reading list and preparing the synopsis, both of which were approved by my thesis chair. While writing, I consulted several medical articles to make my work as accurate as possible. The novel explores the way social media …

The Cube Of Time, Luke Anderson

Arrow Rock

No abstract provided.

Guardian Angel, Savannah Hill

Arrow Rock

No abstract provided.

A Diary Entry On The Eve Of The Battle Of Bosworth Field, Amanda Sciandra

Arrow Rock

No abstract provided.

Lavender Sky, Tevye J. Schmidt

Arrow Rock

No abstract provided.

Church Of The Golden Arches, Sydney Clark

Arrow Rock

No abstract provided.

The Status Of Rigatoni, Pyra Intihar

Arrow Rock

No abstract provided.

Arrow Rock, Spring 2022, Full Issue

Arrow Rock

No abstract provided.

Pulse, Vol. 1 Spring 2022

PULSE: A Student Publication of Literary & Artistic Works

No abstract provided.

Review Of When The Mask Slips, Michael F. Russo

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Night Drive, Ava Dziadzio

The Laureate

No abstract provided.

Broken Match, Abbey Churney

The Laureate

No abstract provided.

Middle American Gothic, Jordan Heisler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though Gothicism has evolved since its inception in the eighteenth century, its most common tropes—such as deteriorating settings, supernatural figures, and foreboding atmospheres—have remained integral to the genre. While, the following fictional collection, Middle American Gothic, draws inspiration from these familiar Gothic tropes, it substitutes the grandeur of crumbling castles, monasteries, and sprawling estates for a common town within the rural Midwest. Similarly, while the collection nods to the existence of supernatural beings, none of its stories actually rely on anything otherworldly as a source of terror. Its setting, while not traditionally Gothic, features a series of decaying, outdated homes …

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.

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 …

Lift Up The Sky! Levanten El Cielo!, Barbara Dolan-Wilkinson

Fiction and Poetry

For sixteen years, I lived and worked at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park located on the coast at the northernmost edge of California. One of my favorite activities was leading children on nature hikes into the ancient forest. Encouraging children to discover the redwoods and watching their eyes sparkle as they listened to “Lift Up the Sky!” was magic for me and I believe it was for them, too.

Durante dieciséis años, viví y trabajé en el Parque Estatal Prairie Creek Redwoods, ubicado en la costa en el extremo norte de California. Una de mis actividades favoritas era guiar a …

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。

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 …

Radio Rebel, Elizabeth Sperring

Scripps Senior Theses

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

The Curiosociety, Luke G. Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

What Is The Female Gaze In Literature?, Cadence Dangerfield

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Just as Laura Mulvey defined the male gaze, feminist scholars are constantly working to identify a female gaze in visual arts and literature. Does it exist? This project works to answer the following questions: What is the female gaze? Is it simply the male gaze in reverse, or is it something more, a lens encompassing the desire of intimacy instead of an inherent sexual desire? To find the answer, or at least one possible answer that I can situate myself and my writing into, I plan to read both fiction and scholarship and write utilizing a female character as she …

A Strange Object That Breaks Your Heart: Short Stories, Annie Sheneman

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Veil, Alyssa K. Malloy

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Three centuries after the Veil’s destruction reunited the land of Mishnal, archaeologists make a discovery in the wild Veiled Lands that will shed light on the cataclysmic event that changed the world forever. Through their analysis of the unearthed memories in the Veiled Lands and remnants of manuscripts penned by key governmental figures, we learn about Mina, a woman with demonic heritage who knows the only way to free herself of her oppressors is by her own clawed hands and the sharpened teeth that she knows can rend flesh from her victims. The first book of the Beyond the Veil …

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 …