Browsing by Subject "fiction"
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Item Lies: a collection of short stories(Texas A&M University, 2006-08-16) Wellington, Melissa JuneThe purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate understanding of the themes, techniques and traditions of creative writing, combining all of the knowledge gleaned from coursework in a body of original fiction. The thesis consists of a collection of short stories and a critical introduction which positions them within the mode of modernism. Themes, structure and the process of creative development are examined and explicated. Influences on style, theme, subject and tone are also described so as to create a line of continuity linking this work to its literary predecessors. The stories follow the path first blazed by Chekhov, then expanded by later modernist writers such as James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. Stylistically, I have been most influenced by the lyricism of writers like Gabriel Garc??a M??rquez and Flannery O??Connor. I have chosen as the subjects of my stories ordinary people who lead ordinary lives generally devoid of fabulous and exciting incidents that might comprise an exciting plot. The characters themselves do not represent anything in particular, except perhaps a general human condition that, due to their very ordinariness, is inescapable. By encompassing within the narratives both dreams and extended imaginings, these stories will challenge the boundaries of literal reality in some small degree. Although each story will advance its own ??discrete moment,?? all the stories will share a focus on internal struggles rather than on external actions and an overall theme of lying, concentrating on the lies that we, as humans, tell ourselves in order to deal with events that occur in our lives and the consequences of our actions. Following in the footsteps of James Joyce and Flannery O??Connor, each of the stories will be epiphanic rather than anecdotal in nature. However, some of the stories will center on false or failed epiphanies, wherein the main character fails to come to a realization or comes to an incorrect realization.Item The failure of storytelling to ground a causal theory of reference(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Tanksley, Charles WilliamI argue that one cannot hold a Meinongian ontology of fictional characters and have a causal theory of reference for fictional names. The main argument presented refutes Edward Zalta's claim that storytelling should be considered an extended baptism for fictional characters. This amounts to the claim that storytelling fixes the reference of fictional names in the same way that baptism fixes the reference of ordinary names, and this is just a claim about the illocutionary force of these two types of utterance. To evaluate this argument, therefore, we need both a common understanding of the Meinongian ontology and a common taxonomy of speech acts. I briefly sketch the Meinongian ontology as it is laid out by Zalta in order to meet the former condition. Then I present an interpretation of the taxonomy of illocutionary acts given by John Searle in the late 1970s and mid 1980s, within which we can evaluate Zalta's claims. With an ontology of fictional characters and a taxonomy of speech acts in place, I go on to examine the ways in which the Meinongian might argue that storytelling is an extended baptism. None of these arguments are tenable-there is no way for the act of storytelling to serve as an extended baptism. Therefore, the act of storytelling does not constitute a baptism of fictional characters; that is, storytelling fails to ground a causal chain of reference to fictional characters.Item The Last Educations: Genre, Place, and the American University(2012-10-19) White, Lowell MickThe Last Educations: Genre, Place, and the American University consists of three interlocking novellas dealing with themes of change and dislocation in contemporary Texas, focused on the institution of the modern university, an institution that itself is undergoing rapid and irreversible change. Crucial to the dissertation is a thorough understanding and demonstrated proficiency of the genre of the novella. The creative text will illustrate how the novella can be used to achieve narrative depth and insight into the changing social context of the contemporary individual; the critical introduction will discuss the history of the genre and its emergence in recent years as a powerful vehicle for the depiction of change. The overall subject of the creative text is change, and the ways in which individuals react to change?changes to the institutions to which they devote their lives, and changes in the localities and regions they inhabit. The immediate setting for the novellas is the contemporary university, an institution currently undergoing transformations which will have implications for all of American society.