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(1 - 11 of 11)
- Title
- Woman of Dust: An Exodus.
- Creator
-
Schultz, Lacey, Thaxton, Terry, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, Uttich, Laurie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Woman of Dust: An Exodus is a collection of themed non-fiction experiences and stories with themes, characters, and ideas that coincide deliberately and verge on the cohesiveness of memoir. The overarching themes of this collection are womanhood and coming of age. The stories examine the ways in which childhood crushes, current relationships, parenting, religion, and pets influence the growth of a child into an adult, in this case, a girl into a woman. They take individual moments,...
Show moreWoman of Dust: An Exodus is a collection of themed non-fiction experiences and stories with themes, characters, and ideas that coincide deliberately and verge on the cohesiveness of memoir. The overarching themes of this collection are womanhood and coming of age. The stories examine the ways in which childhood crushes, current relationships, parenting, religion, and pets influence the growth of a child into an adult, in this case, a girl into a woman. They take individual moments, conversations, conventions, and thoughts and explore how they shaped the woman who now writes them. Stories range in content from how the standards of a southern Baptist church raised a girl who was afraid to date, drink, or kiss, about the role of God in the narrator's private life, to stories that explore how cartoon Disney prince crushes turn into crushing on neighbor boys and classmates, discovering the narrator's current conceptions of love as different from her early conceptions and questioning the ways in which those conceptions came into existence in the first place. These stories look at the domestic implications of religious life that dictate specific roles for women in a marriage relationship, and how the narrator interprets these implications in terms of her own love and pending marriage. Still other essays investigate how a mother's overbearing fear of sex, men, and drugs drove one daughter to be a small town porn star and drove the other to complete abstinence, how gender conventions shape a girl's mind, and how family life sometimes contradicts the same conventions. While the subject of each story is deeply feminine, revolving around a woman narrator and woman experiences, the content of these stories creates a very human experience, one outside the confines of gender. They are about one girl turned woman, from one perspective, and about one life, but they are mostly about being human, about growing, and about the ways in which humans grow.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005246, ucf:50607
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005246
- Title
- CRASHING AGAINST THE WOOD.
- Creator
-
Ryan, Jessica, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In this collection of short stories, the characters struggle to recover equilibrium in their lives that have been turned upside down. They struggle against one another, against change, and against the loss of loved ones. No matter what bonds hold the characters together, the underlying tension of change and reaction permeates their relationships and threatens what they know to be true. A theme of discontent runs in these stories. Something beneath the surface is not right, and the characters...
Show moreIn this collection of short stories, the characters struggle to recover equilibrium in their lives that have been turned upside down. They struggle against one another, against change, and against the loss of loved ones. No matter what bonds hold the characters together, the underlying tension of change and reaction permeates their relationships and threatens what they know to be true. A theme of discontent runs in these stories. Something beneath the surface is not right, and the characters struggle to climb out of the mess their lives have become. Some of them have been stifled, like the narrator in "Resounding Gong, Clanging Cymbal," who's being pressured on all sides to marry. Some of them are toeing the line of fitting in and being independent, like the teenagers in "Hibiscus Boulevard," who, caught up in the last days of summer, are more concerned with being adults than being kids. In the title story, the teenagers in a small town find a way to memorialize one of their own by performing the act that caused him to die. The cautious bonds between the characters are continuously being worked by one another, by oppressive scenery and location, by the aftereffects of dysfunction, or by unrequited love. No matter what the context or situation, something is always just a little bit off, or wrong, in each story in this collection, and the characters must do their best to correct the situations.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- Identifier
- CFE0002604, ucf:48281
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002604
- Title
- GRIDLOCKS AND PADLOCKS.
- Creator
-
Chapman, Rachel, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
"Gridlocks and Padlocks" is a collection of short fiction and personal essays whose goal is to create characters with depth in both real-world and not-entirely-real-world situations. The strength of nonfiction is the capacity to observe the writer's thinking and motivation. "Ashes to Ashes, Trust to Dust" is a personal essay that explores my struggle with the faith I was raised in, with an emphasis on how friendships and relationships have shaped my perceptions. "The List of Unacceptable...
Show more"Gridlocks and Padlocks" is a collection of short fiction and personal essays whose goal is to create characters with depth in both real-world and not-entirely-real-world situations. The strength of nonfiction is the capacity to observe the writer's thinking and motivation. "Ashes to Ashes, Trust to Dust" is a personal essay that explores my struggle with the faith I was raised in, with an emphasis on how friendships and relationships have shaped my perceptions. "The List of Unacceptable Faults" is a personal essay about unwanted interactions with the opposite sex; it is an examination of men and boys through the lens of naive dissatisfaction. "Sing Me Rebecca" is a personal essay that delves into my relationship with my mentally handicapped sister. While the nonfiction writer focuses on his or her own development and struggles, a fiction writer can investigate the human condition by exploring the depth found in imagined people who face everyday situations and what characteristics and behaviors make them believable and absorbing. "Object of Study" is a short story about a girl named Taylor, who in her formative years stumbles upon a friendship between her sister and a boy she does not trust. This story examines Taylor's quirky, multi-faceted character through the actions she takes to investigate and ultimately end the friendship between a boy and her younger sister. "Crossing Fault Lines" is a work of short short fiction that focuses on three characters-a mother and her two sons-and their strained relationship. Whether writing personal essays or fiction, my goal is to create overarching conflicts that reflect people's struggle with being "stuck" in some situation in life.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFH0004351, ucf:44976
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004351
- Title
- HALF-VIRGIN.
- Creator
-
Pollack, Alexander, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Half-Virgin is a cross-genre collection of essays, short stories, and poems about the humor, pain, and occasional glory of journeying into adulthood but not quite getting there. The works in this collection seek to create a definition of a term, "half-virgin," that I coined in the process of writing this thesis. Among the possibilities explored are: an individual who embarks upon sexual activity for the first time and does not achieve orgasm; an individual who has reached orgasm through...
Show moreHalf-Virgin is a cross-genre collection of essays, short stories, and poems about the humor, pain, and occasional glory of journeying into adulthood but not quite getting there. The works in this collection seek to create a definition of a term, "half-virgin," that I coined in the process of writing this thesis. Among the possibilities explored are: an individual who embarks upon sexual activity for the first time and does not achieve orgasm; an individual who has reached orgasm through consensual sexual activity, but has remained uncertain about what he or she is doing; and the curious sensation of being half-child, half-adult. Ultimately, I believe, a "half-virgin" possesses all of these traits. One of the goals of the collection is to scramble the prototypical coming-of-age story into bits and parts and halves. Among the approaches included are earnest memoir (the real and metaphorical costumes a young couple wears on Halloween), character-driven fiction (the life story of Marlow, a college track star who ends up the unwitting inspiration for Super Mario Brothers), and narrative experiments (a tongue-in-cheek creative writing syllabus and a bullet pointed resume of sexual conquests). By exploring the untidy fragments in love, lust, and human connection in these works, Half-Virgin aspires to find wholeness through the jagged adventures of growing up.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003591, ucf:48921
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003591
- Title
- Please Don't Interrupt Me While I'm Ignoring You.
- Creator
-
Harrington, Sherard, Poissant, David, Uttich, Laurie, Bartkevicius, Jocelyn, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
A collection of short stories and personal essays, "Please Don't Interrupt Me While I'm Ignoring You" weaves a lame of humor and private desperation on the page. An actor in one story craves career gratification, while a United Nations coordinator in another finds herself attracted to a nervous NGO. A housewife attempts to convince her husband to commit an infidelity, while an architect finds that his new pet companion isn't helping him to get over his ex-girlfriend. Having a difficult time...
Show moreA collection of short stories and personal essays, "Please Don't Interrupt Me While I'm Ignoring You" weaves a lame of humor and private desperation on the page. An actor in one story craves career gratification, while a United Nations coordinator in another finds herself attracted to a nervous NGO. A housewife attempts to convince her husband to commit an infidelity, while an architect finds that his new pet companion isn't helping him to get over his ex-girlfriend. Having a difficult time relating, these characters often find themselves stuck in a miscommunication loop, and their journey to get what they want is subtle. These stories are followed with essays about the author's own experiences while he was stuck in a miscommunication loop. Driven by his obscene fear of conflict, the author chronicles what happens when conflict is inevitable. Travel and self-loathing abound in these narratives depicted with sensitivity and sarcasm-bitterness and love. Together they leave a lasting impression of the impermeability of worldly citizens, and the internalizations they have to combat to get there.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- Identifier
- CFE0004319, ucf:49480
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004319
- Title
- QUARTER LIFE CRISIS OR HOW TO GET OVER COLLEGE AND BECOME A FUNCTIONING MEMBER OF SOCIETY.
- Creator
-
Anderson Jr., Patrick, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
As a writer, I feel like dealing with conflict in real life is the best way to deal with conflict in my fiction. Quarter-Life Crisis or How to Get Over College and Become a Functioning Member of Society, while a fictional novel, is very much about many of the conflicts I've experienced over the past few years. Sean Easton is a twenty-five year old college graduate living in Miami, trying to balance out his life in a world that doesn't make as much sense to him as it did when he first...
Show moreAs a writer, I feel like dealing with conflict in real life is the best way to deal with conflict in my fiction. Quarter-Life Crisis or How to Get Over College and Become a Functioning Member of Society, while a fictional novel, is very much about many of the conflicts I've experienced over the past few years. Sean Easton is a twenty-five year old college graduate living in Miami, trying to balance out his life in a world that doesn't make as much sense to him as it did when he first graduated college, happy and looking forward to the future. Suffering through the aftermath of a major breakup as well as the death of his best friend, Sean is in the midst of a year-long alcohol binge when we are introduced to him, a period of time characterized by sporadic bouts of self-loathing interlaced with sardonic internal dialogue directed towards the world at large. Sean's story eventually intersects with the second protagonist in Quarter Life Crisis, Lauren Ellis. Lauren is a twenty-four year old college dropout turned pharmacy technician. When we are introduced to her, Lauren's life is characterized by her child-Justin-and her husband Rick. Rick's a mechanic, and he, Lauren, and their son are all living a comfortably mundane life until the day Lauren comes home to find Rick having sex with eighteen year old Natalie, Justin's babysitter. From there, Lauren's entire life is thrown into disarray, forcing her to confront desires and dreams she had previously filed away in the mental category of "lost." Together, Sean and Lauren represent a large portion of our society, a generation of individuals entering their mid- and late-twenties in the new millennium. Many of them have been told to dream big and aim high throughout their entire lives, that the next four years will be the best of their lives. And then the next four years. A few of us fulfill these dreams. Most don't, and in a time when acquiring a college degree has become more an expectation than an accomplishment, Sean Easton and Lauren Ellis are two of many that are defined by their uncertainty as to where their place in society is. Quarter Life Crisis follows their journey from complete uncertainty to little less uncertain, bringing their lifelong dreams into direct conflict with what they are actually capable of achieving. Though the circumstances of Sean and Lauren's shifts in character are both distinct, their mentality and outlook on love and life are similar. In the end, they both find a balance that gives them hope for happiness which, they both realize, is the most they can really get in the long run. The underlying theme of Quarter Life Crisis or How to Get Over College and Become a Functioning Member of Society is that college has become a fixture in American upbringing. The novel isn't saying this is a good or bad thing, just that it is something that hangs over everybody in the current generation's heads growing up, whether they attend college or not. The novel is an attempt to examine how people function in the new millennium after reaching the point in their life when college is no longer a factor, when they are thrown into the real world and told to fend for themselves. It's the story of how two people end up doing exactly that, and the hellish process they go through to get to that point.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003985, ucf:48671
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003985
- Title
- BISTRO GIRLS.
- Creator
-
Blakeslee, Vanessa, Rushin, Pat, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
"Bistro Girls" is an interconnected collection of short stories focusing on characters whose lives intertwine in the affluent Floridian town of Bellamy Park. In "Bistro Girls of Bellamy Park," a senior at a privileged college struggles to confront an old friend who has slipped into addiction. In "Bobby Blues," two women's stifling situations with live-in boyfriends give way to a small hope as Valerie casts aside her illusions and leaves to find a new apartment, temporarily freeing herself...
Show more"Bistro Girls" is an interconnected collection of short stories focusing on characters whose lives intertwine in the affluent Floridian town of Bellamy Park. In "Bistro Girls of Bellamy Park," a senior at a privileged college struggles to confront an old friend who has slipped into addiction. In "Bobby Blues," two women's stifling situations with live-in boyfriends give way to a small hope as Valerie casts aside her illusions and leaves to find a new apartment, temporarily freeing herself from the pattern of relying on a man. In these stories people wrestle with flawed concepts of personal identity that create outward limitations in their interactions with those they care about most. In "Disconnect," an eccentric millionaire struggles with spirituality and a romance spoiled by his inability to find satisfaction. In "The Coffee Shop," the emotionally removed Don leaves Valerie in the inevitable position to find contentment through self-reliance. Through trial and error, the obstacles of insecurity and disillusionment can at times be overcome. In "Scout's Honor," a young woman marries under the spell of fateful disillusionment, with tragic results. An annulment is the catalyst for her maturity, yet the road before her promises to be a long, painful one. As the characters come closer to acceptance of the imperfections and possibilities in themselves and the world around them, there is almost always some hope, no matter how difficult the means to get there.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2005
- Identifier
- CFE0000745, ucf:46576
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000745
- Title
- Stories I Told Myself: A Memoir.
- Creator
-
Crimmins, Brian, Neal, Mary, Roney, Lisa, Uttich, Laurie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Stories I Told Myself: A Memoir explores the experience of growing up gay in the 1980s. It is one boy's journey toward self-acceptance set against the conservative backdrop of a rural community on California's central coast. The story illuminates the hunger for a life different than the one being lived, and the ever-present sense of being different exacerbated by bullying and unrequited love. It is a narrative of evolving identity, and includes cultural insights and societal context of the...
Show moreStories I Told Myself: A Memoir explores the experience of growing up gay in the 1980s. It is one boy's journey toward self-acceptance set against the conservative backdrop of a rural community on California's central coast. The story illuminates the hunger for a life different than the one being lived, and the ever-present sense of being different exacerbated by bullying and unrequited love. It is a narrative of evolving identity, and includes cultural insights and societal context of the time period. The author poses a fundamental question, (")How did I make it out of the 80's alive?(") and he explores the answer with poignant humor and self-examination. Mr. Crimmins shows that, beyond the constraints of time and place, the process of coming out remains an important and consistent element of the queer experience.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005152, ucf:50710
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005152
- Title
- In Double Exile: A Memoir.
- Creator
-
Beckwin, Deborah, Nwakanma, Obi, Roney, Lisa, Thaxton, Terry, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
In Double Exile: A Memoir examines the life of a family of Ghanaian immigrants and their journeys of acculturation, and the impact of the father's spiraling mental health issues on his family. Through the eyes of their daughter, this thesis briefly explores their lives on the right side of the Atlantic, as medical professionals, and then focuses on the life of their daughter born in America on the left side of the Atlantic. As novelist Georges Simenon has said, (")I am at home everywhere, and...
Show moreIn Double Exile: A Memoir examines the life of a family of Ghanaian immigrants and their journeys of acculturation, and the impact of the father's spiraling mental health issues on his family. Through the eyes of their daughter, this thesis briefly explores their lives on the right side of the Atlantic, as medical professionals, and then focuses on the life of their daughter born in America on the left side of the Atlantic. As novelist Georges Simenon has said, (")I am at home everywhere, and nowhere. I am never a stranger and I never quite belong.(") This memoir explores this tension between alienation and connection, as a second-generation immigrant grows up navigating between various cultures: to dominant American culture, evangelical Christian/Southern culture, African-American culture, and Ghanaian culture. In an attempt to understand the present, this thesis is a sankofa journey back into the author's history. Spanning over four decades, the memoir uncovers various exilic configurations: exiled from family, from ethnic heritage, from home, and from one's self.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005304, ucf:50529
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005304
- Title
- Bluegrass, Blueprints, and Bildung: The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come as an Appalachian Bildungsroman.
- Creator
-
Shoemaker, Leona, Meehan, Kevin, Campbell, James, Jones, Donald, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come takes as its backdrop the American Civil War, as the author, John Fox, Jr., champions Kentucky's social development during the Progressive Era. Although often criticized for capitalizing on his propagation of regional stereotypes, I argue that the structure of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come is much more problematic than that. Recognizing the Bildungsroman as a vehicle for cultural and social critique in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century...
Show moreThe Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come takes as its backdrop the American Civil War, as the author, John Fox, Jr., champions Kentucky's social development during the Progressive Era. Although often criticized for capitalizing on his propagation of regional stereotypes, I argue that the structure of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come is much more problematic than that. Recognizing the Bildungsroman as a vehicle for cultural and social critique in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century writing, this project offers an in-depth literary analysis of John Fox, Jr.'s novel, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, in which I contend the story itself is, in fact, an impassioned account of human progress that juxtaposes civilized Bluegrass society and the degraded culture of the southern mountaineer. Indicative of the Progressive Era scientific attitude toward social and cultural evolution, Fox creates a narrative that advances his theory of southern evolution in which southern mountaineers are directed away from their own culturally inferior notions of development and towards a sense of duty to adapt to the civility of Bluegrass culture.This study focuses briefly on defining the Bildungsroman as a genre, from its eighteenth-century German origins to its influence on the American literary tradition. Beginning with Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, the Bildungsroman, in its most traditional form, narrates the development of the protagonist's mind and character from childhood to adulthood. Focus will be placed on how the Bildungsroman engages with literature's ability to facilitate the relationship between an individual and social development, as well as how easily the Bildungsroman lends itself to being appropriated and reconfigured. This study will then demonstrate how The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, Fox's local-color narrative, in its focus on the growth of the protagonist, Chad, as an allegory of the development of an Appalachian identity during the Progressive Era, might usefully be understood as an Appalachian Bildungsroman. While Chad, ultimately acquires the polished savoir faire of a skilled Bluegrass gentleman, the tensions between the southern mountaineers and the Bluegrass bourgeois makes his socialization into any one culture impossible, a situation illustrative of the disparity between Appalachia and the rest of America during the Progressive Era. By adapting the Bildungsroman to represent this historical situation, Fox's novel demonstrates the kind of conflict that furthered Appalachian difference as point of contention for the problematic ideals of social and cultural evolution, thus, indicating the need for reconciling Appalachia's marginal position.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0006002, ucf:51021
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006002
- Title
- DISTANCE.
- Creator
-
Kosik, Jonathan, Neal, Darlin, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Distance is a collection of short fiction that explores the spaces between us. Sometimes it's emotional, sometimes it's physical; it lies before us like a cross-country journey, dragging us through emotional terrain fraught with countless dangers and rare rewards. A convict returns to his childhood home. A lonely man documents the unexpected damage of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A teenager learns that some boots are not made for walking. These stories are the long and short of it....
Show moreDistance is a collection of short fiction that explores the spaces between us. Sometimes it's emotional, sometimes it's physical; it lies before us like a cross-country journey, dragging us through emotional terrain fraught with countless dangers and rare rewards. A convict returns to his childhood home. A lonely man documents the unexpected damage of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A teenager learns that some boots are not made for walking. These stories are the long and short of it. They examine the way we struggle to understand love, lust, disappointment and the kind of detachment that can develop where we least expect it. We all know the distance between two people differs by degree, but in the end, where that space exists, an inescapable question awaits: Should we sever the tie or bridge the gap?
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003715, ucf:48783
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003715
