Keywords

Abortion, aikido, bildungsroman, collage, fiction, collection, comics, experimentalism, flash fiction, flash nonfiction, food writing, fragmentation, fragmented narrative, graphic narrative, henna, illustration, interpersonal relationships, loss, lyrical, magical realism, martial arts, memoir, mental illness, mother daughter conflict, multi modal, multiverse theory, non chronological narrative, nonfiction, parallel universes, personal essay, physics, pregnancy, realist, reflection, relativity, repetition, screenwriting, secret keeping, secrets, sequential art, sexuality, sports writing, storytelling, trust, truth, unconventional structure, unreliable narrator, vanity, weddings

Abstract

Mirrors and Vanities is a multi-modal collection which showcases the diversity of working in long and short storytelling forms. Featured in this thesis are fiction, nonfiction, graphic narrative, and screenplay. Using unconventional approaches to storytelling in order to achieve emotional resonance with the audience while maintaining high standards for craft, these stories and essays explore the costs inherent to the subtle nuances of interpersonal relationships. The fiction focuses on the complications of characters keeping secrets. A husband discovers the truth behind his wife’s miscarriage. A girl visits her fiancé in purgatory. A boy crosses a line and loses his best friend. Meanwhile, the nonfiction centers on self-discovery and gender roles associated with power struggles. A schizophrenic threatens to ruin my mother’s wedding. I rediscover my relationship with my father through food writing. Sword-work teaches me to fail and succeed at making martial art. The title work of the thesis is a collaged story highlighting the tribulations of a physicist fixated on recovering his lost love by manipulating the multiverse. The multi-modal format implicates the nebulosity of physics theories and how different aspects of the narrative can be presented in various formats to best suit the nature of the storytelling. Through the interactions of characters in mundane and extraordinary circumstances, the works in this thesis examine the consequences of choice, the contrast between reality and expectation, coming of age, and the Truth of narrative.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2013

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Rushin, Pat

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Degree Program

Creative Writing

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0004745

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004745

Language

English

Release Date

May 2018

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Arts and Humanities -- Dissertations, Academic, Dissertations, Academic -- Arts and Humanities

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