<p> The dissertation consists of an extended critical essay entitled &ldquo;&lsquo;Character&rsquo;-izing Hysterical Realism: Postmodernism, 9/11, and the Realistic Aesthetic&rdquo; and original fiction in the form of a novella, The Believing Game. The critical essay contextualizes the development of the subgenre of hysterical realism in the literary fiction of the 1990s and examines its regression in the years following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I suggest that hysterical realism can be partly understood as a hybrid of realism and postmodernism and a &ldquo;bridge&rdquo; from postmodernism to a new, still-emerging post-postmodern fiction. The Believing Game, set in a Midwestern college town, examines the challenges, fears, and desires of a young woman on the verge of falling into disillusionment. In her struggle to maintain self-confidence in the face of various personal crises, the main character may represent the general plight of twenty-something millennials. The novella deals prominently with themes such as faith, desire, love, and the tension between personal independence and social expectation.</p>

<p> This dissertation consists of a critical essay and a collection of short fiction. The essay discusses how testing the structures of authority is a central component in the signature novels of Jack Kerouac and John Barth. This is visible in both narrative structure and content. As the road becomes the embodiment of Kerouac&rsquo;s rebellion against a social order that ultimately leads to a disintegration of the family, stories that highlight their own artificiality become Barth&rsquo;s protest against a literature exhausted by its realist devices. In content (Kerouac) and in form (Barth), both authors seek redemption&mdash;a new purpose. But behind every failure stands the figure of the Father/Author. Several themes unite the five stories that form the collection, the most prominent being the male protagonist&rsquo;s struggle for purpose in a chaotic, hostile, and grotesque world to which he feels no connection. The stories use dark humor and, at times, fantasy against a realistic background to capture a feeling more than a type of character: a sense of lostness, of wandering without direction in a world where the road is the purpose and running away or being silent is a way of being. </p><p> The collection is tied together and framed by a series of email conversations between a fictional character and the fictional construct of the author, Seth Johnson. Seth is nearing the end of his last semester in an English graduate program and will be returning to work in South Texas, and his old logging buddy, Don Bush, is eager for his friend to join him once again on the oil rigs.</p><p>

<p> Humor is an ever-present aspect of American Literature, and, in particular, short fiction. While the construction of the comedic has been studied and broken down into its constituent parts, the reasons for its application are less studied and understood. This dissertation examines the application of humor and the comedic in the works of American writers: Raymond Carver, Flannery O&rsquo;Connor, George Saunders, and Denis Johnson in order to gain understanding about the decision to include humor in a variety of their works. The goal of the critical introduction portion of <i>Pieces</i> is to illustrate the use of comedy as a means of creating engagement in works of short fiction, which may be less engaging as a matter of plot or character, and then to come to a conclusion about the decisions these authors make about humor while writing. The creative portion of <i>Pieces</i> is a collection of short fiction, which attempts to illustrate the same comedic application. </p><p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Joann Gardner, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 7, 2003). Includes bibliographical references.