Longing and avoidance are both in play in the lives of Liv and August, two single people at the cusp of middle age who meet while trying to help Santo, a young illegal immigrant, and his son find a place to live. The two circle about each other and eventually fall in love, but almost as quickly old patterns reassert themselves for both. These challenges must be acknowledged and a new way envisioned before the love Liv and August share can mature into something more durable.

This thesis considers the portrayal of uncertain or amateur encounters with new technologies in the late twentieth century. Focusing on fictional responses to the incipient technological and cultural changes wrought by the rise of the personal computer, I demonstrate how authors during this period drew on experiences of empowerment and uncertainty to convey the impact of a period of intense technological transition. From the increasing availability of word processing software in the 1980s to the exponential popularity of the “World Wide Web”, I explore how perceptions of an “information revolution” tended to emphasise the increasing speed, ease and expansiveness of global communications, while more doubtful commentators expressed anxieties about the pace and effects of technological change. Critical approaches to the cultural impact of computing technologies have tended to overlook the role played by perceptions of expertise and familiarity, and my thesis seeks to redress this by identifying a broad range of imagery, language and cultural references used to depict amateur or inexpert encounters with computing technologies. My interest in literary representations of amateur or marginalised users of computing technology reveals how the ease and speed of reading and writing promised by technological expertise can be countered by uncertainty arising from limited understanding of the complex processes involved. In a pre-smartphone age, the computer loomed as an object which was simultaneously baffling and enchanting, filled with potential but also obscure in its fundamental workings. Examining instances within experimental literary fiction and poetry which portray, imply, or respond to, encounters with personal computing, I demonstrate how individuals’ attempts to understand a technologically-inflected world can be described and enacted by the use of unusual narrative and poetic devices, where experimental literary strategies work to recreate the complex sensations associated with thrilling, difficult, or incomprehensible aspects of information technologies.

Last Kind Word is a novel that explores the ways people seek control and power in the face of the unknowable. Set in the fictional town of Thorpe, South Carolina, the story follows four main characters-Donna Neese, Melissa Burnside, Anthony Washington, and Jill McManus-struggling in the aftermath of biracial teenager Micah Burnside's disappearance. They search for a replacement for the lost connection to Micah and for a sense of control at a time when their lives seem to lack it, when other forces, be they people or circumstances or spirits, hold power over them. In the midst of this, the four of them must decide what life will look like going forward. In Thorpe, theories about what happened to Micah range from the plausible to the fantastical. Those closest to him have their own theories, too, although they are less inclined to share them with the gossip-hungry townspeople. Micah's mother Melissa, reeling from the equally mysterious loss of Micah's father Dan eighteen years earlier and the intense mood swings from her untreated bipolar disorder, is convinced that her son is alive, searching for his father in San Diego. Meanwhile, Micah's grandmother Donna believes that he is dead, murdered by Nick and Nathan Goff, Thorpe's not-so-secret meth dealers who come from a long line of rowdy and dangerous men. Jill, Micah's ex-girlfriend and a recent college drop-out, worries that a prank they played on a hoodoo practitioner is somehow to blame not only for the dissolution of their relationship, but also Micah's disappearance. Jill seeks the aid of a hoodoo conjurer to set things right in the spirit world and, hopefully, her life. Anthony is a black country and blues musician and small-time drug dealer. His work forces him into a tenuous and volatile friendship with the Goffs, one that could explode into anger and violence at any moment. Anthony also thinks the Goffs have something to do with Micah's disappearance, but he believes his friend is alive, just laying low after a lie leads to the Goffs' arrest. These four characters must grapple with long-standing feuds, secrets, and family discord as they try to solve the mystery of Micah's disappearance and come to grips with the possibility that he may never be found.

Through the gossip and rumors in a small town in Minnesota, the townspeople discuss and react to the Levison family's claimed perfection.

Parte-se da teoria do análogo de Herrmann (2006b) para considerar a possibilidade de identificar Psicanálise (e psicanálises) como forma literária. Segundo esta teoria, todo homem de ciência retira-se para um campo do pensar análogo ao de seu conhecimento. Os físicos retiraram-se para as matemáticas e os cientistas humanos e sociais para a literatura de ficção, assim criando teoria. A meu ver, a teoria do análogo torna possível a afirmação de constituir a literatura de ficção matéria prima da Psicanálise; por assim dizer, seus tijolos. Entretanto é com Candido (1957/2009) que se torna possível elencar psicanálises mais definitivamente no campo da estética, a partir dos conceitos de função, estrutura e unidade estética. Considerando-se uma possível harmonia entre função e estrutura das psicanálises relatadas, estariam definidas nesse campo. Note-se: se a estrutura de quaisquer psicanálises funciona bem ou mal é menos a questão desta investigação, que pensar se é possível considerá-las nesses termos. Minha pesquisa levanta estas hipóteses a partir de cinco denominadas ficções freudianas de Herrmann (2002a) que aliás é possível que engendrem um gênero literário, transformado a partir daquele inaugurado nos casos clínicos de Freud e dois casos clínicos meus. As ficções freudianas de Herrmann e os meus casos clínicos estão estruturados pelo método psicanalítico, descrito por Herrmann (1979), buscado em Freud (1893-1895). Adicionalmente, aquelas consideram a produção da Teoria dos Campos e engendram, definitivamente, unidade estética. Meus casos clínicos sendo psicanálises podem ser considerados como forma literária, no sentido desta investigação, mas não é claro que engendrem unidade estética. Esta é uma distinção entre esses dois, digamos tipos de psicanálises estudados, entre outros vislumbrados / I begin describing the theory of the analogous reign (Herrmann, 2006b), in order to consider Psychoanalysis, and psychoanalyses, as literary form. According to this theory, every man of science removes himself to a field of knowledge analogous to his own, in order to produce knowledge in his particular field. Physicists, for example, remove themselves to the realm of mathematics, and human and social scientists to that of literary fiction, as they produce theory creatively. In my view, it is by the theory of the analogous reign that it has become possible to propose literary fiction as the raw material of psychoanalyses: their building blocks. Nevertheless, it is with Brazilian literary critic Candido (1957/2009) that psychoanalyses may most definitively be contemplated as pertaining to the field of aesthetics, by use of his literary concepts: function, structure and aesthetic unit. In other words, it becomes conceivable that psychoanalyses be aesthetically defined in the realm of Literature, when a harmonious relationship between a psychoanalysis function and structure is encountered. It must be added that: whether the structure of a particular psychoanalysis functions well or poorly is less the question of this dissertation, than to determine whether it is possible to consider this matter in these terms. My research analyses these hypotheses in four of Herrmanns denominated Freudian fictions (2002a) and two case studies of my own. The former may offer elements to consider the Freudian fiction as a literary genre, as created by Freud and transformed by Herrmann, which is a proposition hinted at by my investigation. In conclusion, I have found that Herrmanns Freudian fictions, like my case studies, are structured by the psychoanalytic method described by Herrmann (1979) but created by Freud (1893-1895) although additionally they have the function of considering the theories of the Multiple Fields Theory and they engender aesthetic unity. My case studies may also be considered as literary form as may psychoanalyses in general, in the sense of this investigation but it is not clear that they engender aesthetic unity. This is one distinction between these two types of psychoanalyses studied, among others surmised

My thesis project is a draft of a novel. It is literary/realistic fiction telling the story of a single father of a young daughter who struggles with navigating complicated relationships and building a meaningful life for himself and his daughter in their small town. In this draft, the protagonist, Clint, deals with developing new romantic relationships while managing his relationships with his daughter’s mother, her family, and his, as well as recognizing his portion of the blame in the dissolution of his romantic relationship with his daughter’s mother and the biases and expectations that prevent his healing and development.

The objective of this exegesis is to show how linguistic and cultural hybridity create a unique prose style, and how my stories sit within that style. I will use Grace Paley and Lucia Berlin to demonstrate the distinctive narrative techniques. These include the use of sensuous details (instead of descriptions) to make place and character palpable; dialogue that convincingly evokes living speech; plots which emanate from the characters, rather than the other way round; and open-ended resolutions, as in real life. I will then show how I use these narrative techniques in my collection Happiness and other stories. The collection of stories is embargoed until 31 March 2012.

Scissors Paper Rock is based on the true story of Amy Biel, a young and idealistic American woman who went to South Africa to support the political effort against Apartheid. She worked there as a volunteer organizer during a time of great political turmoil, and was days away from returning home to the United States, when she was violently killed in a riot. While Amy's death was not an accident--four men were found guilty for taking her life--it is certainly possible to think of her death as a tragedy. Amy's idealism and belief in her power to do good, allowed her to put herself into the midst of forces over which she had no control, and which ultimately overwhelmed her. In this novel, a fictionalized version of Amy's story, a young American woman named Miya Clare goes to the African country of Oneg Kempo in the hope of making a difference. While there, she is killed during a political action against white oppression that escalates into a riot. Although Scissors Paper Rock does not focus primarily on Miya's death and the events leading up to it, those elements are certainly part of the story, and are presented in the novel as testimony in an amnesty hearing for one of the men implicated in Miya's murder. But the real heart of this work is the story of Miya's life, not her death, and the main narrative of the story investigates how she came to be the person she was. What were the complex threads of her personal history, the disparate collection of events, people, and interactions that formed her? How did they shape her world view? Why did they lead her to make the choices that she did, and to take the actions that that ultimately led to tragedy?Miya Clare's death was an accident, but her presence in Oneg Kempo was not. She was there by choice, or rather, by a multitude of choices. What those choices were, and how they made Miya into who she was, are the engine of this story.

The objective of this exegesis is to show how linguistic and cultural hybridity create a unique prose style, and how my stories sit within that style. I will use Grace Paley and Lucia Berlin to demonstrate the distinctive narrative techniques. These include the use of sensuous details (instead of descriptions) to make place and character palpable; dialogue that convincingly evokes living speech; plots which emanate from the characters, rather than the other way round; and open-ended resolutions, as in real life. I will then show how I use these narrative techniques in my collection Happiness and other stories.

The objective of this exegesis is to show how linguistic and cultural hybridity create a unique prose style, and how my stories sit within that style. I will use Grace Paley and Lucia Berlin to demonstrate the distinctive narrative techniques. These include the use of sensuous details (instead of descriptions) to make place and character palpable; dialogue that convincingly evokes living speech; plots which emanate from the characters, rather than the other way round; and open-ended resolutions, as in real life. I will then show how I use these narrative techniques in my collection Happiness and other stories. The collection of stories is embargoed until 31 March 2012.