Finding Elvis: Stories - a creative dissertation - is a collection of ten short stories divided into two parts: Bad Jews and Song of Songs. The five stories comprising the first section of the manuscript - Bad Jews - follow, in part, the Jewish-American literary tradition, and they explore common themes found in the hallmark texts of this tradition, namely religious and cultural identity, alienation, anti-Semitism, memory, and familial history. This section of the manuscript explores and chronicles the varying degrees of the Jewish-American experience, however miniscule or disjointed that experience may be. The five stories in the second section - Song of Songs - deal with different women as they navigate issues of love, relationships, and their identities within the framework of their - at times surreal - worlds. These stories attempt to accomplish something Philip Roth successfully achieves in all of his work: capturing the humanity of the characters - whether or not they're Jewish - thus creating texts that touch on the emotional and cultural truth of each protagonist - of, in my case, American women. Some of the stories within this manuscript experiment with form, structure, or voice. Additionally, within almost every story, the main character's search for identity is paramount. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2011. / September 26, 2011. / Jewish, magical realism, short stories, women / Includes bibliographical references. / Julianna Baggott, Professor Directing Dissertation; Martin Kavka, University Representative; Robert Olen Butler, Committee Member; Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183548 |
| Contributors | Levy, Samantha Brooke (authoraut), Baggott, Julianna (professor directing dissertation), Kavka, Martin (university representative), Butler, Robert Olen (committee member), Stuckey-French, Elizabeth (committee member), Department of English (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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