This thesis is a novel that takes formal cues from works such as Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Georges Perec’s Life: A User’s Manual. The work takes two separate forms in its chapters; the first being more traditional narrative chapters that follow a set of characters as they explore the surreal landscape of the titular Hotel, and the second are akin to flash fiction pieces that describe individual rooms in the Hotel. Together the narrative attempts to address issues of class and the way that capitalism subsumes people’s identities, as well as the potential of the natural world using leftist politics as a lens for this critique. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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Secure the Shadow is a collection of short-shorts and flash fiction, which draws heavily on the conventions of fables, parables and fairy tales to consider modern themes, desires and cruelties. The collection is linked by a meta-fictional fascination with the act of storytelling -- the liminal psychological space between the real and unreal, fantasy and delusion, seen and unseen, predator and prey. The collection also maps the topography of loss -- it explores what it means, and how it feels, to lose and to be lost. / MFA

This thesis contains five short stories, each narrated by a character with a psychological disorder. The disorders represented are as follows: alcohol use disorder, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, phobic disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. Research was conducted in two parts: (1) study of psychological texts including peer reviewed articles and case studies and (2) study of literary works including memoirs and novels. The author aims to use storytelling to humanize and therefore generate empathy for those with mental illnesses.

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This project is a collection of interconnected short stories all based in the Los Angeles area. Each story is able to stand on its own as a short piece, but ultimately plays a larger role of possessing a relationship with those that come before and after it. The collection is broken into three segments, each segment possessing its own theme. And while each segment, and the stories within each segment, flourishes with the theme they are placed in, each and every story still interconnects with each other in order to produce the framework of the book entirely; that being the story of two young lovers: “Leslie,” and “Thomás.” These two characters that I have produced are at the basis of this project. Their stories are peppered throughout the collection in order to better convey the sporadic nature of their relationship.

The critical preface, "Learning to Break the Rules" discusses workshop rules as guidelines, as well as how and why I learned to break them. The creative portion of this thesis is made up of eight short stories: "The Many Incarnations of Blazer Chief," "Anna's Monsters," "The Pecan Tree's Daughter," "When the Seas Emptied," "The Umbrella Thief," "How to Forget," "Fracture," and "Stealing Dreams."

Can words create worlds? My fiction thesis, El mundo es mentira (The World Is a Lie), explores different voices and points of view to examine the ways in which they not only tell stories, but also generate spaces, atmospheres and, ultimately, worlds of their own. Moreover, the book aims to be a meeting ground where these voices dialogue with the voices of the literary tradition, reinterpreting and rewriting it. This collection was conceived as an experimental laboratory as well: it is comprised by short and micro-stories which question and challenge conventional forms of storytelling by incorporating poetic, memoiristic and essayistic devices.

<p>This dissertation defends the <i>microrrelato</i>, an extremely brief work of narrative fiction, as the “fourth narrative genre,” as informed by research in embodied cognitive science, often referred to as the field of “neurohumanities.” The hallmark brevity of the <i>microrrelato </i>means that the literary perception of the text—and the creation of an imagined story world—is highly influenceable by its context, though the traditional literary criticism often published regarding the <i>microrrelato </i>does not seem to defend its distinction. I offer a reexamination of the <i>microrrelato </i>by defining it using a radial-structure conceptualization as informed by research from cognitive science on prototypes to inform a more comprehensive approach to defining the <i>microrrelato </i>and its relationship to other narrative, fictional, and literary forms. By looking at the prototypical conceptualization of the <i>microrrelato </i>through the lens of the neurohumanities, its distinction as its own category of narrative prose becomes clearer. Whereas the vast majority of research in the neurohumanities uses larger works of literature as summative case studies, very little has yet been applied to such short, “sudden” pieces of narrative fiction. It is through this examination that I demonstrate that fictional texts do not need to be extensive in order to afford the realization of cognitive processes in readers that construct imagined story worlds or afford them enriched narrative experience. The brevity or “suddenness” of the <i>microrrelato </i>is precisely what affords the reader the opportunity to do so. Furthermore, by applying empirical research from the field of neurohumanities, including data that I have collected, to the <i>microrrelato</i>, this dissertation also provides insight into the nature of fiction and the act of reading itself. </p>

Appalachian writing brings a voice to the region that is often obstructed or excluded by popular culture throughout the United States. Crowded with stereotypes, many stories of Appalachian culture are misconstrued or never heard at all. This makes the work of modern Appalachian writers especially significant. Perhaps one of the best ways to reach a broader audience of people in this fast-paced digital time is through shorter writings, and in this thesis I will be presenting my process of writing modern flash fiction and poetry and of sharing the truths of working class, Appalachian people.