Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-224).

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Zurich, 1999/2000--Cf. t.p. verso. / Includes three of Burgos' short novels: El perseguidor; La flor de la playa; and El brote. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of West Florida, 2009. / Submitted to the Dept. of English and Foreign Languages. Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 57 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Leaves iv and vi are blank. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf xviii). Also available on the Internet.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

The five short stories which comprise this creative project are designed in exploration of the contemporary woman's state of mind. In accordance with this design, each of the stories is told. from the point of-view of the woman who is its main character. Though each of the five protagonists is of the Midwestern middle class, the women vary in the details of age, education, and, marital status as well as in the qualities of maturity, intelligence, and, self-awareness. Whether the woman is a flighty girl in her early twenties inanely trying to establish something worthwhile in herself, a middle-aged housewife attempting to deny the vapidity of her life, an aging widow seeking to recapture the contentment she found with her first husband, or a shrewd., elderly woman scheming to manipulate her fellow inmates in a sterile convalescent home, each one finds herself in conflict with the facts of the life she has created for herself. And because few such conflicts reach the best of all possible resolutions in life outside of fiction, the struggles of these women are not sophomorically resolved, but remain to them as sources of dissatisfaction, confusion, and alienation.

The thesis examines Greek short stories written and published since the fall of the dictatorship in Greece in 1974, a year marking the beginning of the country's increasing opening to western lifestyles, mentalities and preoccupations. The present research explores two questions: How do Greek short stories of this period respond to the challenges of the postmodern condition, and what is the picture of the postmodern that one could draw from these texts. To this goal more than a hundred short stories are examined, by Sotiris Dimitriou, Michel Fais, Rhea Galanaki, E. Ch. Gonatas, Yiorgos loannou, Christophoros Milionis, Dimitris Nollas, I. Ch. Papadimitrakopoulos, Ersi Sotiropoulou, Christos Vakalopoulos, and Zyranna Zateli. The thesis is structured on a thematic basis, studying the major themes of reality and the subject, in order to evaluate the kind and degree of subversion that this fundamental bipolar axis of modern thought is undergoing in the postmodern condition. The readings are informed by contemporary theory, ranging from microhistory and Bakhtinian dialogism to poststructuralism and deconstruction, Levinas's ethical theory and Wittgensteinian language games. The textual analysis reveals that the traditional notion of reality as a unified totality is coming under severe strain; the critique mounted by the texts ranges from negative recognition of cosmological plurality through epistemological failure to an increasingly positive recognition of multiple incommensurate universes, be that by means of metafiction or, more radically still, a magic realism that transcends the world of the text to imbue performatively the world of the reader. The reality of the past in the form of historical truth is another target of scrutiny, as the unearthing of multiple insignificant, private and a-systemic events undermines the formerly dominant monolithic representations of the past and uncover its discursive construction, thereby facilitating the emergence of marginal historical subjects by means of fictional terms. Accordingly, the subject is no longer represented as a dominant and autonomous agent but as discursively constructed within a web of power relations. Yet this predicament creates the potential for a narrative identity and an alternative ethics founded on the acknowledgment of difference and interpersonal relations. Lastly, games, and especially language games, as a particular trope of merging reality and the subject, signal the cultural determination of irredeemable difference and plurality that is a constant in postmodern critique. Apart from suggesting the significance of the texts studied and proposing novel approaches to them, the thesis also promotes the re-evaluation of the short story as a genre in the study of the contemporary, while at the same time offering a detailed account of particular instances of postmodern critique on the fundaments of modern thought.

No description available.

The exegesis will elaborate on the research process undertaken to write a collection of short fiction. The creative work is a collection of ten stories linked thematically by an archaeological approach to character psychology, expression and action. Some of the stories also explore the influence of popular culture and cultural archetypes on the characters. Important contemporary influences in terms of both content and style have been the short stories, Wheat by Tracy Slaughter (2004), Walking to Laetoli by James George (2004) and Aquifier by Tim Winton (2004). The introduction of the exegesis outlines my interests in the modern ‘slice of life’ story, in the conflict and tensions that occur between emotional and chronological time, and in Charles May’s assertion that short stories, through their use of metaphor, are a vehicle for exploring mythological perception. The theorists who most influenced my research and creative writing are then highlighted and their contribution to my understanding of narrative technique is discussed. Four main narrative techniques are emphasised, and illustrated with reference to particular stories from the collection. The techniques discussed are all related to the fundamental craft issue of show don’t tell. Finally the exegesis touches on the difficulty a writer has in being an objective reader of their own work. [Note: the creative work is embargoed until 31 March 2013.]