AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Richard Kelly Pechous, for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing, presented on May 19, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: Spine of a Dog and Other Stories MAJOR PROFESSOR: Professor Pinckney Benedict The characters in this collection display a sense of longing for stability--some sort of attainment of what it means to be an insider--whether it be with romance, happiness, or control. More importantly, the material here examines the way we perceive ourselves in greater society; what drives our desperate need to conform.

Raymond Chandler created his detective Philip Marlowe not as the idealisation of heroic individualism as is commonly perceived, but instead as an authentic individual subjected to very real psychological frailties resulting from his traumatic experiences during World War One. Marlowe's characterisation goes beyond the traditional chivalric readings and should instead be interpreted as an authentic representation of a traumatised veteran in American society. Substituting the horror of the trenches for the corruption of the city. Chandler's disillusioned protagonist and his representation of an uncaring American society resonate strongly with the dislocation of the Lost Generation. Consequently, it is profitable to consider Chandler not simply as a generic writer but as a genuine literary figure. This thesis re-examines important primary documents highlighting extensive discrepancies in existing biographical narratives of Chandler's war experience, and unveils an account that is significantly different from that of his biographers, revealing the trauma that troubled Chandler throughout his life. The application of psychological behavioural interpretation to interrogate Chandler's novels demonstrates the variety of post-traumatic symptoms that tormented both Chandler and his protagonist. A close reading of his personal papers reveals the psychological symptoms of PTSD that were subconsciously encoded into Marlowe's characterisation. Marlowe can only be understood a character shaped by Chandler's own experiences. This conflation of the hard-boiled style and war experience has influenced many contemporary crime writers, particularly in the traumatic aftermath of the Vietnam War. The sum of this work offers a new understanding of Chandler's traumatic war experience, how that experience established the traditional archetype of detective fiction, and how this reading of his work allows Chandler to transcend generic limitations to be recognised as a key twentieth century literary figure.

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In the Midst of Tears and Loud Voices, and Other Short Stories consists of five short stories. The first story, in the Midst of Tears and Loud Voices, is set in the Missouri Ozarks and told by Becky Bricker about an odd aunt. The second story relates an aged man's transition experience in Belgrave Leaves New York. The third story, Dorcas and Deborah, is told by Deborah about her unusual relationship with Dorcas Weatherby. The next, story is a Southern "local color" piece about a single day, The First of May in Battle Ridge. The fifth story, Good Coffee. Cheap Ketchup, Cold Sheets, details the strange meeting of a man and woman whose lives have other, unknown, connecting threads.

[abstract missing] / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Strategies of Disconnection is short story collection focusing on memes or rather the intersection of modern internet meme culture, meme theory, and Christianity, capturing the realities of an era of memetic upheaval (in 2016 the search term “Meme” overtook the term “Jesus” in popularity) when the digital and the spiritual seem to overlap, both contending for attention. Memes are culturally analogous to genes, both serving as entities driven toward survival and reproduction. Yet, and entities analogous to genes, memes find themselves contending for survival. These stories inhabit the perspective of memes as characters attempting to acknowledge existence alongside their genetic counterparts: An unnamed creator who falls for Lucy, the first set of hominid bones, an actor who avoids notoriety after having played the role of god, and internet troll Anon, who lives on 4chan. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This collection consists of a critical preface exploring the similarities between serialized comic books, realist fiction and the author’s own writing. The principle discussion concerns continuity, the connecting tissue between ancillary works of fiction, chronology, the function of time in the narrative of related stories, and the function of characters beyond the stories they inhabit. The stories within the collection revolve around an eccentric ensemble of suburban youth whose demoralized and violent actions are heavily influenced by defining moments of their past.

Rat Mouth is a collection of fictional stories that speak to the absurdity of girlhood. These stories focus on the precarious situations women are put into when their physical bodies are valued more than their internal lives. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (MFA)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

“Small Stories” offers a glimpse of the kinds of stories that risk going unknown: stories of historical Africa and its sustained influence on the present and future, voices of women, community, and communal resistance to expulsion from history. At a macro level, the intent of this collection is to demand diversity and inclusivity in the modern literary, social, and academic culture. Rethinking history by inaugurating a wider set of evidentiary sources from the past does not mean escaping to a complete amnesia about the current position of Africans in literary arts, but recognizing that no single form of historical evidence can be used to accurately incorporate our story into literature / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (MFA)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Terlingua includes a scholarly foreword on illusion and reality in the writing of fiction. Five short stories are contained in this thesis. "Terlingua" relates the story of two students on a road trip who give a ride to a mysterious woman. "Zoology" is the first person narrative of a zoology graduate who picks up a socialite. "What about Sonoma?" is the story of two misfits whose affair comes to an end. "Losing Ground" examines a couple's relationship that changes because of the man's bowling injury and the woman's unexpected pregnancy. "The Jury Remembers Everything" is about a woman who becomes hesitant to marry her fiancé when she learns her mother may have once run away with a mortician. "Losing Ground" is a drama, and the other four stories are comedies.