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CONTACT
Title
CONTACT.
Creator
Osbourne, Brittany, Jensen, Toni, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
ABSTRACT This fiction novel focuses on the Sankofa philosophy that we as human beings must learn from our past to better understand our current existence and future; however, sometimes we choose to ignore or suppress the past because remembering it may be too hurtful. When we forget what happened yesterday our outlook on today and tomorrow becomes distorted. Contact is a novel that attempts to explore how ÂÂ"living in the nowÂÂ" alone becomes problematic...
Show moreABSTRACT This fiction novel focuses on the Sankofa philosophy that we as human beings must learn from our past to better understand our current existence and future; however, sometimes we choose to ignore or suppress the past because remembering it may be too hurtful. When we forget what happened yesterday our outlook on today and tomorrow becomes distorted. Contact is a novel that attempts to explore how ÂÂ"living in the nowÂÂ" alone becomes problematic because the pastÂÂ--if not rememberedÂÂ--will come back to haunt you. The erasure of the line between Diasporic Africans and their African past is the primary theme explored. The writer deconstructs how living in the now is indeed living in the past because the past and present, in the life of Tufa, become one. Reincarnation serves as the vehicle to explore this theme. Tufa, known for her aberrant behavior, is the reincarnation Afua AtaáÂÂ--an Ashanti woman who survived the Maafa, or Transatlantic Slave Trade. Past love, hate, dishonor, rivalry, pain, and hope complicate the ÂÂ"ordinarinessÂÂ" of TufaÂÂ's teenage life. The novel is divided into a prologue and eight chapters. The bulk of each chapter follows TufaÂÂ's current life and ends with a vignette told by five African women, one being Afua Ataá. Each vignette paints in broad strokes the landscape and historical moments of the Maafa. The present becomes complicated when traces of the Maafa seep into TufaÂÂ's life. Some of these traces are culturally specific rather than unique to Tufa. However, other traces are uniquely shaped by TufaÂÂ's former life. People from her past disrupt her current life by their presence. Their disruption takes many formsÂÂ--some of it brings pain and some of it brings joy. By reading TufaÂÂ's story, others may find the strength to confront their past when it makes contact with their present. Like Tufa, we must confront the pain in our past to experience its joy.
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Date Issued
2010
Identifier
CFE0002987, ucf:47939
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002987
WE WILL MAKE YOUR HEAD EXPLODE
Title
WE WILL MAKE YOUR HEAD EXPLODE.
Creator
Sullivan, Jaclyn, Jensen, Toni, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
We Will Make Your Head Explode is a collection of short fiction stories that explore themes of friendship, family, love, lust, jealousy, loyalty, and disappointment. The characters in these stories are utterly human; they are pushed, pulled, and often fall victim to circumstance. A woman grapples between her love of roadside attractions and her boyfriendÂÂ's grief. A son is forced to decide whether or not to honor his motherÂÂ's final wishes. A...
Show moreWe Will Make Your Head Explode is a collection of short fiction stories that explore themes of friendship, family, love, lust, jealousy, loyalty, and disappointment. The characters in these stories are utterly human; they are pushed, pulled, and often fall victim to circumstance. A woman grapples between her love of roadside attractions and her boyfriendÂÂ's grief. A son is forced to decide whether or not to honor his motherÂÂ's final wishes. A college student is blind to her brotherÂÂ's evolution beyond their family. A woman discovers new possibilities while stalking graveyards to escape the memory of a man who left her behind. A teenager on the run findsÂÂ--and losesÂÂ--her first love. As desperately as they struggle to control their situations, their love lives, their families, and their emotions, they are often faced with simply having to come to terms with their realities. These eleven stories are intended to examine the ways people are capable of treating each other, both good and bad, and how people deal with the inevitably of being forced to move beyond what seems permanent, to create new identities, to laugh, and to learn from their mistakes.
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Date Issued
2010
Identifier
CFE0003035, ucf:48356
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003035
A FLOATING WORLD: STORIES
Title
A FLOATING WORLD: STORIES.
Creator
Best, Karen, Jensen, Toni, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
A Floating World is a collection of short stories inspired by fairy tales. Often set in worlds where the mundane and the fantastic come together, these stories explore moments of strangeness that slip beyond the bounds of realist fiction. Fantastical events intrude into mundane reality as characters attempt to reconcile the known with the unknowable.
Date Issued
2010
Identifier
CFE0003076, ucf:48309
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003076
OF SPANISH COWS, WILD BOARS, UNPREDICTABLE WEATHER, AND OTHER ODDITIES
Title
OF SPANISH COWS, WILD BOARS, UNPREDICTABLE WEATHER, AND OTHER ODDITIES.
Creator
Sanchez, Lydia, Jensen, Toni, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
In this collection of connected stories, the inhabitants of the imaginary Mediterranean village of Marcenac struggle with daily situations that often take allures of a farce, simply because they occur in Marcenac. The stories explore the influence southern France's Roussillon region has on people, the way the proximity of the Spanish border and the Mediterranean shapes the inhabitants of Marcenac's daily lives, and the influence of the climate. Often, the Tramontane, the region's...
Show moreIn this collection of connected stories, the inhabitants of the imaginary Mediterranean village of Marcenac struggle with daily situations that often take allures of a farce, simply because they occur in Marcenac. The stories explore the influence southern France's Roussillon region has on people, the way the proximity of the Spanish border and the Mediterranean shapes the inhabitants of Marcenac's daily lives, and the influence of the climate. Often, the Tramontane, the region's predominant wind, becomes a character. While some of the stories are told from a collective point of view, others reveal the inner thoughts of children and adults, male and female. Because the stories are connected, characters visit different stories and help tell the collective tale of Marcenac. Even though the stories stand on their own, they form cohesion, united by the progression of the seasons and the underlying theme of death. Each story reveals a particularity of the region's weather and culture. Some stories are entertaining and lighthearted. Others are serious. Each invites the reader to share the most intimate thoughts of the characters as they seek solace from various degrees of grief and frustration. Some characters are gauche, naïve, some tender, others bitter, but all are resilient and amicable. The characters' speech and the narrative are often peppered with French, which makes for humorous situations and takes the reader deep within a foreign culture without giving the feeling of an anthropology lesson. As a result, the characters become cultural guides as they ruminate over the past or go about their daily lives. They give the reader a unique insight into the habits and values of the region.
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Date Issued
2009
Identifier
CFE0002626, ucf:48211
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002626
THE WHOLE HEADLIGHT-COLORED NIGHT
Title
THE WHOLE HEADLIGHT-COLORED NIGHT.
Creator
Bryan, Matthew, Jensen, Toni, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This collection of short fiction probes the lives of characters trying to make their home in the flat, unchanging landscape of the small towns that make up central Florida. The largely static environment reflects the rigid patterns of behavior and domesticity the characters find themselves so easily falling into. Seemingly ordinary items--a shotgun, a t-shirt, a paper bag--and the small moments that make up everyday life are imbued with significance as men and women painfully aware of their...
Show moreThis collection of short fiction probes the lives of characters trying to make their home in the flat, unchanging landscape of the small towns that make up central Florida. The largely static environment reflects the rigid patterns of behavior and domesticity the characters find themselves so easily falling into. Seemingly ordinary items--a shotgun, a t-shirt, a paper bag--and the small moments that make up everyday life are imbued with significance as men and women painfully aware of their own ordinariness struggle to hold onto those fragile instances of connection, happiness, or even their own self-constructed sense of identity. The struggle becomes one of opposing forces: as characters yearn to connect to the people, places, and objects around them, they find themselves more and more attracted to the idea of escaping their own lives, even if for just a moment. Stories range from two pages to over twenty and introduce the reader to a diverse population of characters, from an out of work construction worker cum wannabe philosopher to an amateur historian writing a history nobody cares about to the one man who actually did escape--a cockfight organizer who made it big in Georgia before blowing himself up at a gas station. Characters fight over toothbrushes, puzzle out whether a father is just drunk or beautiful, and look for space stations they may or may not be able to see at all. As in life, in these stories, it's the small, quiet moments that come to define who these people are and demonstrate their pursuit of something bigger and more important, even if they don't have any idea what that may be.
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Date Issued
2009
Identifier
CFE0002630, ucf:48219
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002630