This thesis examines five books by the American author Philip Roth commonly referred to as the “Roth Books,” which are The Facts: A Novelist’s Autobiography(1988), Deception (1990), Patrimony: A True Story (1991), Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993), and The Plot Against America (2004). These books, held together by the author’s proper name, are often viewed as texts that conflate fiction and nonfiction or demonstrate the “fictionality” of all factual narrative accounts in compliance with well-known postmodernist and poststructuralist theories. Contrary to this view, I argue that a valid understanding of the Roth Books demands that we acknowledge that these works represent a series of quite different ways for the author to transform his own life into written form, a creative act which is manifested in both fictional and nonfictional writing. In the attempt to argue this view, I turn to a field of study where the question about criteria for distinguishing fictional from nonfictional narrative literature has occupied a prominent place: narrative theory. However, my theoretical and methodological point of departure does not align itself with the “standard” paradigm in narrative theory with its origin in classical, structuralist narratology. Rather, the thesis promotes a pragmatic and rhetorical perspective which is argued to better account for how we read and make sense of different narrative texts. In opposition to standard narrative theory, where all narratives are considered to adhere to the same model of communication, I argue in favour of a view where narrative fiction and narrative nonfiction are conceived as distinct communicative practices. I open the thesis by showing that Roth’s books contribute to the discussion on how to distinguish fictional from nonfictional narrative texts (Chapter 1). I then continue by approaching the distinction between fiction and nonfiction in general theoretical terms (Chapter 2). And in what follows (Chapters 3-5), I present a reading where the Roth Books are juxtaposed against each other. This reading demonstrates how these texts, although in some sense related, because of their divergent qualities and differing intentions still communicate differently with their readers, inviting a readerly attention that is dissimilar from one work to the other.

This essay examines a small selection of Swedish newsreel and documentary short films, primarily travelogues, produced shortly before and after the second world war. The general aim is to expose differences in the representation of “The Other” and the “ethnic Swede” by applying a critical discourse analysis. The purpose is to illuminate how the material positions the latter as the norm and then contextualize this with xenophobic currents that had developed up until the middle of the twentieth century. Theoretical and methodological framework is drawn from the field of cultural studies as well as the nonfiction film. The analysis shows that the Swedish newsreel and travelogue indeed, to a high degree, possessed these currents even though part of them, mainly the anti-Semitic ideas, seems to relapse after the Holocaust.

[First paragraph of Preface] I set out to write an essay three years ago that started with the line “I always find God in the bathroom—don’t ask me why,” which is entirely true and says so much while explaining so little. Within a page and a half I briefly introduced a scene, a memory,where I had sequestered myself in a toilet stall in the bathroom on my sorority’s dorm floor at Eastern Kentucky University. I mentioned the scenario—I was hiding from a serial rapist who, for some reason, decided I’d be a good target—in just a few paragraphs and moved on as if it had the paltry significance of last week’s soggy newspaper lying under the dog bowl. After all, I only wrote it because it was a required exercise in my first graduate writing class; I was going to write my thesis in fiction.

ABSTRACT LINKS AND DISCONNECTS BETWEEN THIRD GRADE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS, KNOWLEDGE, AND PRACTICES REGARDING NONFICTION READING COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION FOR STRUGGLING READERS by Nicole P. Maxwell In the current era of accountability, U. S. teachers face strict demands from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to ensure that all students’ reading achievement meets the requirements of their respective grade levels (Coburn, Pearson, & Woulfin, 2011). These demands are especially stressful when teachers have students who struggle with reading. Regrettably, many students grapple with reading difficulties, particularly with comprehending fiction and nonfiction texts (Allington, 2011). The purpose of this study was to examine the beliefs and understandings three third grade teachers held concerning nonfiction reading comprehension instruction for struggling readers and how these beliefs and knowledge influenced their pedagogical practices. This qualitative, interpretive case study examined their beliefs using the theoretical lenses of epistemology (Crotty, 2007; Cunningham & Fitzgerald, 1996; Dillon, O’Brien, & Heilman, 2004; Magrini, 2009), social constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978), transactional theory of reading (Rosenblatt, 1994), and the sociocognitive interactive model of reading (Ruddell & Unrau, 2004). The following research questions guided this inquiry: (1) How do third grade teachers support struggling readers when navigating nonfiction texts? (2) What are these third grade teachers’ beliefs and understandings about struggling readers? (3) How do these beliefs influence the third grade teachers’ pedagogical practices with struggling readers? Data collection lasted for five months and involved interviews, classroom observations, teacher debriefs, and the collection of artifacts, including DeFord’s (1985) Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile (TORP). Data analysis was conducted using the constant comparative approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The findings in this study revealed links and disconnects between the accommodations teachers believed their struggling readers needed and what they actually provided their struggling readers. These teachers faced pressures of time constraints and a focus on testing, which affected their pedagogical practices. Furthermore, they demonstrated a reliance on content area textbooks and dissatisfaction with the accessibility of nonfiction materials. These findings highlight the need for pre-service and in-service teachers to have access to quality nonfiction materials to use in the classroom and instruction on how to provide nonfiction comprehension instruction to their struggling readers.

Confessions of an American Ginseng Addict uses the Lazy Branch Holler in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky as a setting for a creative nonfiction work, which uses history, confession, remembrances, and digressions to tell the story of a man dealing with loss, mental health issues, environmental sustainability, and the power of ginseng. In the style of Desert Solitaire and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the narrative is a discursive work of raw unadulterated gonzo writing.

This project presents the results of a case study of creative nonfiction (CNF) pedagogical practices in undergraduate composition studies and creative writing courses at The University of Arizona, exploring how those who teach CNF at this top-ranked school for the study of the genre are shaping knowledge about it. This project analyzes within a rhetorical framework the various subject positions CNF teachers assume in relation to their writing and teaching as well as the teaching methodologies they utilize. I do this to articulate a theory of CNF pedagogy for the twenty-first century, one that represents the merging of individualist and public intellectual ideologies that I have observed in teacher interviews, course documents, and pedagogical publications about the genre. For students new to the genre, so much depends on how CNF is first introduced through class discussion, representative assigned prose models, and invention activities when it comes to creating knowledge about exactly what contemporary CNF is/can be and how writers might best generate prose that fits the genre's wide-ranging conventions in form, content, and rhetorical situation. Understanding how and why instructors promote certain ideologies in relation to CNF becomes increasingly important as this mode of personally situated, fact-based, narrative-privileging, literarily stylized discourse continues to gain popularity within and beyond the academy.

This thesis uses literature, film, satire, poetry, and news rhetoric to explore the evolving face of gender in today’s society. It is framed by interviews with two women who are residents of the senior living community Pilgrim Place. Each interview brings up themes and feminist concerns that are explored in the essay that follows it. In putting together this work I interviewed the two Pilgrim Place women, Teresa and Anne Marie, and discussed with them their concerns about contemporary feminism and feminist activism differences between our generations. These concerns are distilled into a series of essays that compare themes and concerns shared by the two women with a work of literature or media that compliments and complicates relevant issues. Half of the interviews included are verbatim transcripts of what was said, the other half are works of oral historical fiction based on interviews and subsequent research into the historical events in question. This thesis engages with the question of who owns a movement and whether the recognition of (or refusal to recognize) a history does damage to the movement. This thesis brings into conversation contemporary and modern media to illustrate the changing world of feminism in a way that celebrates the past and anticipates the future.

This is a collection of creative essays containing one person’s world view and experiences – factual and fiction. The intended purpose is not to make the reader think, act, or change any of his beliefs, it is simply meant to entertain him in a world that often offers few risk-free entertainments. It is hoped that the reader will be just as ignorant when he turns the last page as he was when he turned the first. Even Adam with his wonderful garden, or Aladin and his magic lamp, didn’t offer as much. I am offering reading without the danger of learning, possibly a first for literature; it is the scientific equivalent of light without heat.

This creative project is a representation of the genre of journalism that delves deeper into the lives of ordinary people. The story contained in this creative project represents a literary journalistic account of a woman's life of abuse and neglect. Narrative techniques such as scenes, digression, characterization, and vivid description are utilized to vividly chronicle a tale that strives to be both entertaining and enlightening. / Department of Journalism

This exegesis examines how a writer can effectively negotiate the relationship between author, character, fact and truth, in a work of Creative Nonfiction. It was found that individual truths, in a work of Creative Nonfiction, are not necessarily universal truths due to individual, cultural, historical and religious circumstances. What was also identified, through the examination of published Creative Nonfiction, is a necessity to ensure there are clear demarcation lines between authorial truth and fiction. The Creative Nonfiction works examined, which established this framework for the reader, ensured an ethical relationship between author and audience. These strategies and frameworks were then applied to my own Creative Nonfiction.