First Advisor

Helen Zumas

Date of Publication

Winter 3-20-2013

Document Type

Closed Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing

Department

English

Language

English

Subjects

Sex -- Fiction, Identity politics -- Fiction

DOI

10.15760/etd.1298

Physical Description

1 online resource (ii, 147 pages)

Abstract

The following collection, Bent, is comprised of 11 stories and one novel excerpt. The stories, while they stand alone as individual works, are tied together by their questions. "Boy Box," "Lemons," "Claws," "Heart Feathers," "Hot," "Empire," and "How We Were Tamed" experiment with magic and suspension of disbelief in the most overt ways, while "Saints," "Glaciology," and "Cartographers and Creeps" seek instead to work within the constraints of folklore through less stated modes by adopting more of the atmospheric qualities of the tradition. The following stories are curious about the way fairy tales can be reworked to represent diverse, non-heteronormative, worldviews, while dealing explicitly with issues of sexuality, identity politics, and loss of innocence. The excerpt from Swallow is lifted from the opening pages of a novel in progress. Swallow follows Claire during a year at college as she investigates issues of art-making, obsession, bodies, and same sex attraction. There is also an overarching, more dystopian theme that deals with the climate crisis and raises questions about value making in a world that is degrading around us.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 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).

Comments

This thesis is only available to students, faculty and staff at PSU.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/9335

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