An Open Boat is a novel about a woman who sits down one day to confront the central mystery of her life: how she acquired the faith to give birth to a baby she believed she had conceived with a stranger. The story the woman sets out to tell is impelled by wonder and magic--so full of gypsy prophecies, visions, coincidences and timely interventions, she seems hardly aware of the darker forces compelling her life and writing. She discovers, a few pages into her testimony, that the act of writing has magically precipitated other wonders: the tedious job she believed herself committed to is suddenly pulled out from under her; her ex-husband, twice remarried, declares eternal love and a willingness to support her forever; and she receives a mysterious calling to participate in something she's always dreamed of: a high seas adventure aboard a Maine Maritime Academy ship. Convinced that she has finally stumbled upon her destiny, she is raring to go to sea, but there are a few things holding her back: the three children who, after a prolonged separation, have come to live with her; a mysterious man who keeps popping up coincidentally and has even, unwittingly, sent her a ring of betrothal; and the writing of her inexplicably rambling and irrepressible narrative, which she knows will surely reach some kind of conclusion soon. / In this novel, I explore the psychological and spiritual processes that lead a woman away from a will o' the wisp blind faith in "what happens" to a faith based on responsible self-determining. Of particular interest to me is the role of reading (the past, texts, signs) and writing in that process. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-10, Section: A, page: 3955. / Major Professor: Sheila Taylor. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77567 |
| Contributors | Clough, Cynthia Watt., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 235 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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