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Poindexter, Wanda 1946. "Creative imitation: An option for teaching writing." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291444.
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Creative Imitation is an alternative strategy to help students improve their expository writing in college composition. It combines writing by imitation with process modeling to increase student fluency with both the products and processes of writing. For centuries, a technique of "imitatio" was used to teach oral and written language traditions. Isocrates, Quintilian, and Cicero shaped the tradition of imitating writing models. Their principles were revived in the 60s by two neo-classical educators, Corbett and D'Angelo. Objections to the principles of imitation to teach writing are analyzed: models intimidate students, imitation focuses on the products instead of the processes of writing, and imitation reduces individual creativity. Some teachers have reported success with student-centered writing-by-imitation exercises in college composition classrooms. They assert that imitation exercises increase student awareness of correct usage, grammar conventions, rhetorical strategies, and paradoxically enable students to develop an "authentic" voice in their own writing.
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Dolgin, Steven Alfred Getsi Lucia Cordell. "Creative writing and the composing process the role of creative writing in the English curriculum /." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1987. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p8713213.
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Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1987.Title from title page screen, viewed July 25, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Lucia C. Getsi (chair), Curtis K. White, Robert D. Sutherland, Ronald J. Fortune, William E. Piland. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-140) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Graber, Margaret Ann. "These Hearts are Watermelon." OpenSIUC, 2014. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/1389.
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This thesis examines the construction and deconstruction of home. These poems explore this theme largely through the poet's relation to geography and the natural world of the Great Lakes region, friends and family, experiences centered in human interconnectedness, traveling, the impact of technology, orientation in a cosmic space, the ways in which culture shapes and reshapes the one living inside it, and how in a 21st century world, one must still seek to show compassion for other living creatures. Through the utilization of metaphor, narrative, and imagination, this thesis journeys from the poet's home of Indiana to her ancestral roots of Ireland before returning to America with a more complex sense of identity as well as a renewed vision for the future.
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Melkersson, Fabian. "Facilitating Learner Engagement in Creative Writing." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Malmö högskola, Institutionen för kultur, språk och medier (KSM), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-41048.
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Creative writing is a well-established approach to teaching English in the L2 classroom, with the Swedish curriculum including it among its core contents section. There is however a lack of research done on the field, especially when it pertains to learner engagement. As such, this study investigates to what extent engagement in learners can be fostered and facilitated for creative writing. The method used is an analysis of the empirical studies performed on the subject to this date, with the aim of making conclusions based on their findings. Some of the conclusions made from those are that learner engagement can be fostered and facilitated in creative writing, but any exercise should take into concern the learners’ own interests and capabilities. The results also suggest including feedback and revision in every creative writing exercise to extend the time spent on any given project, leading to higher engagement levels in the given exercise. The results of the analysed studies do suggest a clear picture of the advantages of creative writing for engagement, but the lack of research on the subject, both in a Swedish and international context, coupled with creative writing’s central role in the classroom suggests more research needs to be done on the subject.
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Caine, Marjory. "What is creative about creative writing? : a case study of the creative writing of a group of A Level English Language students." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/48753/.
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This thesis reports on a case study of the creative writing of A Level English Language students. The research took place over the two year course and involved five students from one class in an 11 – 18, secondary grammar school in the South East of England. The students were aged 16 at the beginning of the case study. There were two girls and three boys, and all from families with little or no tradition of going to university. The research was based on the theoretical framework of the New Literacy Studies (The New London Group, 1996), where literacy is seen as a socially constructed phenomenon. Genres, discourse and creative voices were researched through discourse analysis toolkit to reflect and interrogate the socially constructed literacy event: the two pieces of coursework each participant produced. Additional data was also included to present a kaleidoscopic deep study of the literacy practice through using interviews, domain-mapping and questionnaires. It is also a reflexive study as it has built on findings from earlier studies for the EdD course, and also projects forwards to the continuing tensions in the teaching of English. Although Creative Writing is now an accredited A Level for examination from 2014, and is a valued component of the A Level English Language, in the earlier years of secondary education students have had limited exposure to creative writing. This is due to the effect of the National Curriculum that has shaped the generation of this case study. Creative writing has been marginalised and devalued within the GCSE (paradoxically since the QCA, 2007 Programme of Study for English put greater emphasis on creativity), where there is limited creative writing opportunity: teachers select a title from a possible six which their students respond to. The Department for Education's draft new National Curriculum has a brief reference to creativity in a list where grammar and accuracy are prioritised. There is a tension in what policy statements, including stakeholders such as Ofsted, say about creative writing and what students experience in delivery of the syllabus driven by the National Curriculum. There is also the anomaly that many students have a range of literacy practices as they operate in increasingly multimodal literacies that schools do not recognise as writing experiences. At present, there is much written about creative writing in primary schools and in Higher Education; but the creative writing of young adults following an A Level course is not visible in policy documents, nor the focus of academic research (with a few exceptions such as Dymoke, 2010, and Bluett, 2010). Therefore, it is an area that is worth exploring. The original contribution to knowledge that the thesis provides is a definition of the literacy practice of the creative writing of A Level English Language students. The thesis, through the case study, identifies the range of influences the students draw on and, in particular, the evidence of intertextuality. How the students develop and shape their creative writing through different creative voices, building on the intertextual influences is presented through the lenses of multiple and multimodal data-sets. In conclusion, a pedagogical model is offered for practitioners who perceive echoes with their own educational contexts.
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Wong, Lai Fan. "Stories by...portfolio consisting of dissertation and creative work." Thesis, University of Macau, 2010. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2456353.
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Kelen, Christopher. "The story of writing Macao a pedagogy for creative writing in a non-native context /." View thesis, 2009. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/41476.
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Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2009.A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Education, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. Includes bibliographies.
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Hurst, Edmund. "Dawnsmoke and the influence of character tropes on the construction of fantasy fiction." Thesis, University of Hull, 2017. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:16540.
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This thesis is formed of a fantasy novel, Dawnsmoke, and an exegesis that will examine the role played by character tropes on the creation of the three principal protagonists in Dawnsmoke. Dawnsmoke interweaves three narrative strands from a diverse set of principal protagonists. Luke, Samantha and Kain combine narratives in order to tell the story of Arx, a city where fire burns blue and memories can be trapped in metal. Told through three distinct third-person-limited voices, this novel explores the concept of self-induced memory loss, isolation and the price of heroism. The exegesis considers the definitions of fantasy offered by C. N. Manlove, W. R. Irwin, T. E. Apter, Tzvetan Todorov and Rosemary Jackson and contrasts these definitions with modern considerations from Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Ursula LeGuin and Kazuo Ishiguro. It posits a definition of fantasy literature that encompasses the traditions that Dawnsmoke shares. It analyses the impact of specific sub-genres on the character norms in Dawnsmoke. It examines the inception of Luke, Samantha and Kain in relation to common character tropes and how the subversion of these thematic expectations impacts the narrative arc of each character. It observes the techniques used in crafting unique voices for each character. It concludes with an examination of the resolution of each protagonist’s journey.
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Fusselman, Amy A. "Ernest Hemingway and I." Thesis, Boston University, 1989. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/38035.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityPLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you.
2031-01-01
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Anderson, Joseph. "Visitations: A Novel." FIU Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1267.
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VISITATIONS, a novel, explores themes of haunting and desire in New York City, in two time periods. The modern-day action focuses on Alan Philips whose wife, Beth, has recently died. His efforts to resume a normal life are sabotaged by what he comes to believe is her ghost. In the parallel story, in 1924, Oliver Nathan Blackburn, a pulp writer, in the midst of a breakdown writes a story that may play a role in Beth’s death.
VISITATIONS presents Alan and Oliver’s perspectives in third person narration, so that the reader is both close to and may question the subjectivity of their perceptions. The book employs a black-comic tone for the contemporary period and a more formal one for Oliver’s sections.
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Myant, Maureen. "The creative dark : writing about the Holocaust, trauma and autism." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5449/.
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The creative dark is a term by Doris Lessing to describe the process of writing. It is used here also to describe writing about subjects that are commonly held to be unknowable: namely, writing fiction about the Holocaust, trauma and autism. Yesterday’s Shadow is a novel, which explores a link between autism and the Holocaust. Bruno Bettelheim, a psychologist, was interred in Dachau and Buchenwald in 1938 – 1939. His observations on human behaviour in the camp led him to hypothesise that autistic children were like the Musselmänner in the camps, they had withdrawn from the world through lack of hope. Bettelheim furthermore claimed that autistic children had no hope because the parents did not love them. This came to be known as the ‘refrigerator mother’ hypothesis. The novel considers the differences between the developmental disorder of autism and autistic-like withdrawal, which may happen as a result of trauma. Several issues arose during the writing of the novel and these are addressed in the commentary. The first of these is memory, in particular how trauma is remembered. Following a brief outline of psychological research in this area, there is a discussion of how memory and trauma are treated in Yesterday’s Shadow and in the discredited memoir by Binjamin Wilkomirski, Fragments. The second factor concerns women’s experience of the Holocaust and whether there is a case for stating that women’s experiences were different from those of men. This is discussed in relation to Yesterday’s Shadow and Lovely Green Eyes, a novel by Arnošt Lustig. Finally, there is an exploration of how the Holocaust is represented and the ethical issues surrounding this. One significant theme is a need for historical accuracy when writing about the Holocaust. A recent children’s novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, by John Boyne is discussed in this light.
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Piercy, Meghan Jennifer. "Freeport." The University of Montana, 2007. http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-03012007-150723/.
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Zapoluch, Katie. "Love and Failure in the Flyover States." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/580.
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Cherry, Thomas Hamilton. "Variation Within Uniformity: The English Romantic Sonnet." TopSCHOLAR®, 2014. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1396.
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The English Romantic poets of the early nineteenth century wrote numerous poems from genres and styles all across the poetic spectrum. From the epics of ancient origin concerning kings and fanciful settings to the political odes on fallen leaders and even the anthropological histories of what it meant to live in their time, these poets stretched their stylistic legs in many ways. One of the most interesting is their use of the short and rule-bound sonnet form that enjoyed a reemergence during their time. Though stylized throughout its existence, the sonnet most often falls into a specific form with guidelines and rule. What makes the Romantic interest in this form noteworthy is that like the other forms, they found new ways to use the sonnet as a means of poetic experimentation and creative expression. Exploring the various internal and external variations, those changes that took place within the lines and phrases of the sonnet and those that form the organizing and rhyming portions of the poem, this study seeks to establish the ways the Romantics took the uniform techniques of the sonnet and stretched its bounds to find new means of creativity. Close reading of the poems of William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley reveals the variant use of caesura, creative dissonance, as well as original organization and rhyme scheme to accomplish purely Romantic goals within the uniformity of the sonnet form.
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Wirtz, Jason. "Poets on inventing revisioning invention theory, practice and pedagogy within rhetoric, composition, English education and creative writing /." Diss., Connect to online resource - MSU authorized users, 2008.
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Boone, Lucinda. "Writing the Young Adult Novel: Analysis and Process." TopSCHOLAR®, 1999. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/744.
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The thesis consists of two sections: research and creative. The research section includes brief analyses of five young adult novels that received the Newbery Medal, awarded annually by the American Library Association to the author of the most distinguished contribution to children's literature. The creative section is an original young adult novel that incorporates some of the characteristics uncovered in the analysis of the Newbery novels. The Newbery Medal winners analyzed for this thesis are The High King by Lloyd Alexander; Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary; Missing Maxj by Cynthia Rylant; A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. The plots of the five books differed greatly, and the genres ranged from fantasy (The High King and A Wrinkle in Time) to mystery (The Westing Game) to "slice of life" (Missing May and Dear Mr. Henshaw). The writing styles of the authors varied as well, from the more mature writing styles of L'Engle and Rylant, to the choppy, simplistic style of Raskin. Three of the novels (The High King, A Wrinkle in Time, and Missing May) seem more suitable for more mature readers, while Dear Mr. Henshaw and The Westing Game are more appropriate for a younger audience. Analysis of these novels revealed that, among these five books, the only element they share relates to theme: in the subplot of each of the works, the hero or heroine of each book comes to realize something important in his or her life. The authors reveal different aspects of writing to the novice writer. Analysis of Madeleine L'Engle's work shows that those who write for a younger audience should not assume their audience is incapable of reading highly sophisticated writing, while Cynthia Rylant shows that young readers can handle a mature theme, such as the death of a beloved family member. Lloyd Alexander's novel clearly instructs that the author must have a complete vision of the world about which he writes. Beverly Cleary displays the pitfalls of writing a first person narrative, while Ellen Raskin most clearly displays an example of disorganized writing. Because the only constant in the five Newbery novels was that the hero came to realize an important truth, this element was incorporated into the creative thesis. The plot of the creative thesis is that of a classic ghost story: Tasha Manning, the 14-yearold heroine, and her family move into a haunted house in a new town; she and her new friend Stephen uncover the history of the house and of the ghost. While trying to solve the mystery of the ghost that haunts her family, Tasha Manning also uncovers two important truths: that moving to a new environment is just as difficult for her parents as it is for her, and that by making an effort and changing her attitude, she can make new friends and a new life for herself.
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Donnelly, Dianne J. "Establishing Creative Writing Studies as an Academic Discipline." Scholar Commons, 2009. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3809.
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The discipline of creative writing is charged "as the most untheorized, and in that respect, anachronistic area in the entire constellation of English studies (Haake What Our Speech Disrupts 49). We need only look at its historical precedents to understand these intimations. It is a discipline which is unaware of the histories that informs its practice. It relies on the tradition of the workshop model as its signature pedagogy, and it is part of a fractured community signaled by its long history of subordination to literary studies, its lack of status and sustaining lore, and its own resistance to reform. These factions keep creative writing from achieving any central core.
I argue for the advancement of creative writing studies. As a scholarly academic discipline, creative writing studies explores and challenges the pedagogy of creative writing. It not only supports, but welcomes intellectual analyses that may reveal new theories.Such theories have important teaching implications and insights into the ways creative writers read, write, and respond. My study explores the history of creative writing, its workshop model as its primary practice, and the discipline's major pedagogical practices. Through its pedagogical and historical inquiry of the field, this study has important implications to the development of creative writing studies. Its research includes a workshop survey of undergraduate creative writing teachers as well as scholarship in the field. My argument envisions a more robust, variable, and intelligent workshop model. It considers how an understanding of our pedagogical practices might influence our teaching strategies and classroom dynamics and how we might provide more meaning to the academy, our profession, and our diverse student body.
At a curricular level, my study offers course and program development, and it justifies the importance of including graduate level training for teacher preparation to further explore the field's history and pedagogy. Through my inquiries and research, I advance creative writing studies, define its academic home, and better position the discipline to stand alongside composition studies and literary studies as a separate-but-equal entity, fully prepared to claim it own identity and scholarship.
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Butler, Michele Jean. "Understanding the aesthetic effect of the familiar essay and its importance in the composition class." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1987. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/406.
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Fodrey, Crystal N. "Teaching Undergraduate Creative Nonfiction Writing: A Rhetorical Enterprise." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/319904.
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This project presents the results of a case study of creative nonfiction (CNF) pedagogical practices in undergraduate composition studies and creative writing courses at The University of Arizona, exploring how those who teach CNF at this top-ranked school for the study of the genre are shaping knowledge about it. This project analyzes within a rhetorical framework the various subject positions CNF teachers assume in relation to their writing and teaching as well as the teaching methodologies they utilize. I do this to articulate a theory of CNF pedagogy for the twenty-first century, one that represents the merging of individualist and public intellectual ideologies that I have observed in teacher interviews, course documents, and pedagogical publications about the genre. For students new to the genre, so much depends on how CNF is first introduced through class discussion, representative assigned prose models, and invention activities when it comes to creating knowledge about exactly what contemporary CNF is/can be and how writers might best generate prose that fits the genre's wide-ranging conventions in form, content, and rhetorical situation. Understanding how and why instructors promote certain ideologies in relation to CNF becomes increasingly important as this mode of personally situated, fact-based, narrative-privileging, literarily stylized discourse continues to gain popularity within and beyond the academy.
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Stannard, Taylor Kistler. "Broken Open." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2007. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2677.
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ABSTRACT Broken Open is a collection of short stories, four of which deal with culpability and the unexpected transformations that occur when blame, either unintended or deliberately invoked, is exposed and finally understood. The remaining two stories concern relationships that turn out to be gifts, as well as painful learning experiences. In "Other Living Creatures," one family contends with post traumatic stress disorder as another implodes following the death of a young soldier in Vietnam. "Hunters" deals with the unconscious motivations that leave a father resentful and unable to forge a relationship with his son. In "Bardenbrook," an accidental death is the impetus for blame and, finally, forgiveness. Rage acts as a catalyst in "The Summoning," the story of a lesbian couple's struggle to accept the reality of breast cancer shortly before one of the partners undertakes a transformative journey as her death approaches. The two remaining stories in Broken Open deal with the protagonists finding their voices. In "Sunday Wars," a girl begins to think for herself, and in "Beyond the Parking Lot," a woman comes to terms with the restraints, self-imposed and otherwise, that have held her captive for most of her life. Each character in Broken Open struggles, perseveres, grows and, ultimately, flourishes. Despite sorrow, pain, and unexpected loss, being broken open leads them, as it does us all, if we let it, to the richest places within.M.A.
Department of English
Arts and Humanities
English
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Strickland, Brett C. "After Inheritance." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1284138586.
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Solomon, Ryan. "In Search of Copia: Using Rhetoric to Teach Creative Writing." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2007. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1011.
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James Berlin, in his book Rhetoric and Reality, points out that our disparate epistemologies lead to inevitable classroom practices, which mean that different epistemologies impact our pedagogical approach and enforce certain views about the role and function of writing in classrooms. This thesis highlights the impact of Romantic beliefs about writing on creative writing pedagogy, as well as exploring how those beliefs hamper the critical function of the workshop. Romantic beliefs have enforced the idea that talent and genius is most important in creative writing, and that writing is spontaneous, organic, original, and expressive. Because of this, many creative writing teachers have come to believe that a structured pedagogical approach hampers creative writing, but this creates problems in workshop where the need for collaborative criticism conflicts with Romantic beliefs. The result is that students, who are assumed to know how to offer effective criticism, struggle to negotiate expressive ideals as opposed to critical response. This thesis therefore explores the problems of Romantic beliefs in detail. This thesis proposes the classical rhetorical curriculum, supported by appropriate rhetorical theory, as a solution to the problems created by Romantic beliefs. This curriculum provides a detailed, structured approach to teaching writing, which is best highlighted by the way it combined stylistic analysis together with production; therefore, helping students use criticism as a way to develop their writing. In doing so, I look at a rhetorical approach to style as detailed by Richard Lanham and Winston Weathers who emphasize helping students with stylistic analysis by helping students understand the function of style. Also, because I recognize that creative writers are often resistant to any discussion of the links between creative writing and rhetoric, this thesis emphasizes the critical links between creative writing and rhetoric, thereby showing that the view of rhetoric held by creative writers is a substantially reduced view of a more dynamic discipline. The truth is the two disciplines share a fundamental critical purpose aimed at assisting student in the production of new texts, and therefore, because the two disciplines have a great deal in common, there is a viable opportunity to build on their theoretical links in order to enhance pedagogy in both disciplines. Therefore, this thesis looks at some specific ways that the classical rhetorical curriculum can be applied within the constraints of the contemporary creative writing classroom.
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Cruz, Conchitina. "Authoring autonomy| The politics of art for art's sake in Filipino poetry in English." Thesis, State University of New York at Albany, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10240433.
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This study examines the autonomy of art as a governing principle in the artistic practice of Filipino poets in English. The Western modernist ideal of art for art’s sake was transplanted to the Philippines via the educational system implemented during the American occupation in the early twentieth century. As appropriated in colonial Philippines, what is historically regarded as a form of artistic resistance to the capitalist and rapidly industrializing society of the West is traditionally read as a withdrawal of participation by colonial and postcolonial literary writers from the political realm. The writer who subscribes to art for art’s sake supposedly fetishizes form in itself and simply has no stake in lived realities and no role in the production of a national literature. Authoring Autonomy interrogates the division between aesthetics and politics that occurs when the autonomy of art is presumed to be incompatible with the work of social transformation. It accounts for the potential and limits of autonomy as a form of critical intervention through studying the work of three Filipino poets: José Garcia Villa, Edith Tiempo, and Jose F. Lacaba. Drawing from the work of critics who have problematized the politics of aesthetic autonomy, including Theodor Adorno and Roberto Schwarz, this study examines how Filipino poets have authored autonomy in ways that comply with, disturb, or resist the status quo. It also includes a poetics essay and a collection of poetry, which articulate, both critically and creatively, my poetic practice as informed by my understanding of how autonomy is authored in ways that are cognizant of postcolonial conditions and anxieties.
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Ocampo, Maritza. "On Bike Riding and Writing." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2015. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/213.
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What follows are the motivations and desires behind my writing and why I chose to pursue writing in the first place. This paper not only gives context to my creative stories, but it also functions as a self-portrait, a glimpse of the writer behind the text. In this paper, I speak of my experiences of growing up in a marginalized group, of being a daughter of Mexican immigrants and a member of the working class. I explain how those experiences helped shape the content and voice that I portray in my collection of short stories called, Somewhere Between Here and There. This collection of short stories emerged at the start of my graduate program but it was a project that was slowly accumulating over the years. The collection centers on the invisibility of a Latino community and dramatizes the challenges that they face as individuals and as a group. Many of my characters face challenges both at an individual and institutional level that causes fragmentation. In the end, each character tries to cope with their situation while trying to find and discover a sense of self and belonging in the world.
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Westerfield, Lindsey Britton. "House of Mirrors." TopSCHOLAR®, 2010. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/155.
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[Partial Abstract} A mirror provides a reflection of the beholder. Not quite an exact replica, there is space and time between the original object and its reflection. Different mirrors produce different angles, lighting, tone, and mood. The mirror is a tool of reference and of introspection; of confinement and of freedom. ...
Shifting between poetry and prose, my manuscript is two-fold. I am the one holding the mirror, looking into my own face and heart, translating what I feel and see onto the page. Simultaneously, my family's hands clasp the hilt of that mirror, turning it so that I may view their faces and stories in light of my own adaptation. ...
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Rice, Martha Kilgore. "Figure eight : a collection of short stories." Scholarly Commons, 1987. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2139.
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Most of the eight stories in this collection are about individuals who are alienated. They are unable or unwilling to break through the barriers that separate them from others. The stories are contemporary; the settings are urban/suburban. The past plays an important part in defining and limiting the present, and fantasy sometimes replaces reality as an option for dealing with the loneliness of isolation. Direct confrontation is another option. Desire for power and the need for assertiveness are important elements in the action of the stories. By contrast, retreat into submission may become the sad alternative.
The voices change with each story. An older man mourns the death of his wife. A young married woman contemplates her sterile marriage but is unable to extricate herself from her stereotypical role as wife. An old man tries to figure out how he can confront his nephew and his family about the values he thinks they lack. A young woman rejects a marriage that she feels will stifle her freedom but returns in middle age to try to understand what exactly she was fighting against. A young boy tries to understand his aunt and her husbands. A seedy middle-aged man dreams of an encounter with a woman of class. A woman who has been rejected by an old friend tries to comprehend the reasons for her friend's mental breakdown.
Some of the characters emerge triumphant to begin again; others are stalemated and accept the status quo; a few make tentative movements in the direction of change without knowing what the outcome will be.
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McCrary, Robin Micah. "Toward a Cultural Competence in Creative Writing Pedagogies." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1578408835816055.
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Kärn, Lina. "‘Creative Writing’: An Efficient Supplementary Tool for Teaching English at Swedish High Schools." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-117674.
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English is, can be, and ought to be taught through various teaching modes for deeper learning to take place successfully. ‘Creative writing’ has shown to be, according to previous research and interviewed high school teachers, a successful tool for teaching English as a foreign language, just as it can help students reach requirements and course goals constituted by the National Agency for Education in Sweden. Furthermore, creative forms of the English language are shown to be largely what motivate high school students the most to learn English, and what interest them about the English language in general. Nevertheless, ‘creative writing’ is rarely practiced when teaching English as a foreign language at Swedish high schools. Together, these findings suggest that ‘creative writing’ should be used more frequently as a tool for teaching English in Sweden. A prerequisite for actualizing the suggestion is education of English teachers in how to teach it properly.
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Henshaw, Sawyer E. P. "Daffodils: A Completely Unrelated Collection of Short Stories." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1003.
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“Daffodils” is a collection of three fictional short stories without obvious thematic connection, yet all containing tenacious female characters. “The Winner” is told from the unflinching voice of a young wife in her struggle for control within the newfound environment of a Massachusetts boarding school. “The Seers” is a dystopian story, taking place in a world with months of “Sun” and months of dark at a time, intimately describing the effects of this phenomenon upon the civilization. Lastly, “Plastic Flowers” examines the loss of love and comfort within a relationship, depicting the insecurities of young adult life in New York City. The three stories vary in perspective, tense, genre, and setting, which allowed me to experiment broadly within fictional short story writing. An in depth introduction describing my process and inspiration for writing is included. Please enjoy!
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Yeung, Yin Mui. "The effectiveness of idea generating to improve students' writing at junior secondary level." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2004. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/556.
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Morris, Paul Edmund Neuleib Janice. "Moving grammar from the margins exploring an integrated and constructivist approach to teaching microstructure /." Normal, Ill. : Illinois State University, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=1251867071&SrchMode=1&sid=6&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1178892538&clientId=43838.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006.Title from title page screen, viewed on May 11, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Janice Neuleib (chair), Paula Ressler, Ronald Strickland. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-192) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Bradbury, Jennifer. "Restlessness, Revision, and Multigenre." TopSCHOLAR®, 2004. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/523.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the importance of restlessness in revision from the perspective of a writer and teacher of writing. This phenomenon, which naturally recurs throughout the writing process, is key to understanding what effective revision is and how to do it most effectively. The thesis has a secondary focus on multigenre writing because it offers a powerful means for understanding revision and conducting it authentically. Thus, both the content and structure of the thesis strive to present and apply the theories of restless revision and multigenre writing.
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Martin, Shannon. "A Palette of Unconvential Symbolism: Color Imagery in Three Margaret Atwood Novels." TopSCHOLAR®, 1995. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/915.
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In this thesis, the writer examines the color imagery in three Margaret Atwood novels: Surfacing, Cat's Eye, and The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood uses color in unconventional ways by forcing colors to symbolize the opposite of their common meanings, by allowing colors to represent simultaneously two opposing ideas, and by disregarding traditional color meanings by creating her own unique associations. Atwood's color imagery supports her thematic concerns in that through her themes--as with her use of color--she challenges the reader's expectations by throwing into question many conventional ideas about progress, religion, and the sex-gender system.
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McDonald, Bonny. "Buried Alive: Hard Science Fiction Since the Golden Age." TopSCHOLAR®, 2005. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/461.
Full textAbstract:
A substantial body of science fiction authors, critics and fans appreciate the literary attention the New Wave of the '60s and '70s brought to the genre of science fiction, but regret the seemingly lasting move away from the hard science classics of the '50s and before. They argue that "the hard stuff' is at the very heart of sf and that its future—still on the path set by the New Wave—is ostensibly a dead end. Many important critics along with hundreds of sf fan websites display this fatalistic concern, asking over and over "Is hard science fiction dead?" The answer is no. These reactionaries suffer from a serious case of the Good Old Days Syndrome (not to mention the Good Old Boys Syndrome). A close look at the state of the genre reveals that hard sf is not only alive and well but also that contemporary hard sf is more in line with its critics' definition of hard sf than the very stories they cite as exemplars of it. Contrary to the accusations of noted sf critics, it may well be that a new golden age of sf is dawning, one with an even truer scientific core as well as a commitment to literary quality. This thesis will expose the curious contradiction between the hard and soft / old and new sf. The introduction will examine the definition of hard sf and declarations of its unfortunate demise. Each of three chapters will compare two stories—one from sf s Golden Age and another after the supposed death of the genre. In each, I will show how classic examples of hard sf regularly fail to meet the objective, scientific criteria they purport to uphold and how contemporary stories—even while focusing (to varying degrees) on the political and personal—better espouse the principles of hard sf. Ultimately, it seems that those who descry hard sf s death miss not the technical aspects of hard sf that, even by their definition, distinguish it from softer sf, but the traditional Golden Age values of male dominance, imperialism, and anti-emotionalism. Newer stories' feminism and redefinitions of progress blind conventional readers to their truly hard-core, science-based foundations. The conclusion will consider what hard sf s paradigm shifts mean in terms of our evolving relationship to science. Specifically, in our technological age, science is not merely a field that studies how things work, but a field that can help us to illuminate and interpret our place in the universe. Ultimately, hard science fiction is not dead, it's just doing something different from what it used to.
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Melloan, Mark. "Baptism." TopSCHOLAR®, 2005. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/462.
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One of my favorite movie characters said he'd worn lots of shoes, meaning he'd been a great many places and done a great many things. Well, I've never been to war or run across America or founded a shrimp company or shook the President's hand or returned kickoffs for the University of Alabama. But I did grow up in a church, come of age, and stay there, which is perhaps as interesting. I am now a husband, worship leader, singer-songwriter, and college writing instructor, struggling to capture fragments of who I was before I was any of these things, and hoping to shed some light on how I came to be who I am today. If you need the entirety of the story, read no further. But if a few scenes will do for now, in a brief Master's Thesis, then by all means... Faith, doubt, commitment—I have cupped my hand, dipped, tasted. I have been immersed in such waters.
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Videtto, Aubrey. "The Underground House: A Body Memoir." TopSCHOLAR®, 2005. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/485.
Full textAbstract:
The creative non-fiction genre, in particular memoir and travel writing, is in a state of constant evolution. Furthermore, as we progress further into postmodern times, writing (both fiction and non-fiction, as well as poetry and drama) becomes more and more confessional and fragmented. These two facts make it difficult to classify the following memoir. It is both travel narrative and memoir on the body, but perhaps none of the traditional writers in either of these camps would claim my piece. Nevertheless, I call it a body memoir, and under essay it should be filed. In three sections (plus an introduction and afterward), "The Underground House: A Body Memoir" follows the preparation for and attempt of a long trip into the Middle East and Africa. The preparation involves the excavation of breast tumors. Post trip, the piece turns to the beginnings of the memoir's persona, in a rural county south of Louisville, Kentucky. The trip itself is played out in an Arabian airport and the capitol of Egypt. The piece draws no conclusions as to the forming of identity (including the neurotic, gender, or philosophical identities of a young woman in early twenty-first century United States of America), though these becomings are certainly taken as the primary subject of the piece. Conclusions are far less important than beginnings, which occur again and again as the piece continues to start afresh - in location, in water, and in reflection.
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Schulten, Emily. "Widowed Affections." TopSCHOLAR®, 2004. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/514.
Full textAbstract:
In the manuscript I will complete, currently titled Widowed Affections, an array of emotions and experiences will be covered in a manner capable of serving each reader in their own way. This manuscript will follow through five sections: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Despair/Depression, and Acceptance. Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross is credited with these five stages, the stages of grief/coping with a loss. In this psychiatrist's book On Death and Dying copyrighted in 1969, she explores these five stages deemed necessary in order to get over loss in a healthy manner. These stages can be experienced in any order but are traditionally listed in this one. These stages are also suggested to be what goes on within a patient who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. It is for these reasons that it will be appropriate for a large audience to find it easy to reflect within a manuscript organized this way. In each of these sections, corresponding poems will appear to serve the reader with a feel for what will follow within that section. The five or six other poems in each section will relate to the inspirations of thought conjured by each stage of grief. While some relate more directly to this process, others allow for room to ponder in one's own manner life and loss. In addition, none of these works are set up in a way to limit or sentimentalize these emotions. Rather it is my goal that these works describe the stages in a manner different from the psychiatrist's standpoint or that of support books. Each poem should relate examples and images that may provoke response quite different from that of the usual outcries such as why me?, this can't be happening, what can I do to stop this? and how do I go on? Also important is that grief comes in different shapes and sizes. Loss may not be associated with death for everyone, nor is this a way in which this manuscript will be limited. The title of the manuscript is taken from a quote by James Martineau: "Grief is only the memory of widowed affections." Martineau was a 19th Century Unitarian minister and was principal at Manchester New College. This title represents the loneliness of one's struggle with grief, as well as the human weakness of the emotions that come with grief. My hope is that the works within the manuscript convey both of these aspects of grief in light of its five most notable outcomes: those of the five stages in Kubler-Ross's book. Most all of the works are free verse and vary in length as appropriate to the subject, situation or story of each. Some of these may get their message across in one stanza, while others utilize several to convey a plethora of images. Several have been previously published in small journals. Four of the poems in the manuscript will experiment with form. Two are sonnets, though neither of these uses the traditional patterns of the sonnet: Shakespearean, Petrarchan or Spenserian. Both will, however, use a rhyme scheme. The other two poems using form will be a sestina and a villanelle. The villanelle will be in loose iambic pentameter. One of the sonnets and the sestina, "Despair" and "Anger," respectively, will be poems corresponding with one of the five stages of the grief process. My goal is to compile this manuscript in a way that conveys the journey that the grieving process can take a person on, including how it can affect a grieving person's outside relationships. Without becoming saccharine or dismal, I hope that these feelings and images can impose upon the reader a sense of chaos within a grieving life/world.
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Intanujit, Praichon. "Passage from Nong Gua." TopSCHOLAR®, 2002. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/601.
Full textAbstract:
I was a sophomore from a small village when Pira Sudham, the author of Monsoon Country and People of Esarn, came to speak at my university about poverty and the forgotten beauty of his people, my people, the poor people of Esarn, the Northeastern region of Thailand. Listening to his sad yet courageous stories, I was reminded over again that I, too, had stories to tell, though it would be some years before I finally sat down to puzzle them out. The result is a memoir of my childhood years in rural Surin, where the mother tongue is Khmer, where most are poor farmers and their rice fields are both their work place and their children's playgrounds. While writing this memoir I couldn't help but wonder why I had so often recalled my childhood years as among the dearest times of my life, despite all the rural hardship. There must be magic in being a child. There must be wonder in grandma's tales, the hunting of wild fruit, the swims in the pond and those walks in the woods. My village was my world, and it has much to teach largely because its being complex, difficult and painful and yet somehow simple and, above all, beautiful.
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Carey, Peter. "Life in Water." TopSCHOLAR®, 2002. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/645.
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Ennis-Chambers, Sarah. "Birth and After Birth and Painting Churches: Tina Howe's Examination of Love and Savagery in the American Family." TopSCHOLAR®, 1995. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/865.
Full textAbstract:
Playwright Tina Howe has been quoted as saying that "family life has been over-romanticized; the savagery has not been seen enough in the theatre and in movies . . ." (Moore 101). In two of her plays, Birth and After Birth (1973) and Painting Churches (1983), that savagery appears in the form of name-calling, jealousy, apathy, disregard, and physical and mental abuse. A juxtaposition of the similarities in Birth and After Birth and Painting Churches will explain the "savagery" Howe is examining. The earlier play is written in the surrealistic style of lonesco and Beckett, playwrights who have been a major influence on Howe. The later work is a much more realistic, conventional play. Both center around three-member families (a set of parents and an only child) and take place at a time of significant change. The main focus is Painting Churches and the abuse that lies at the heart of the play. Mags Church (short for Margaret) has come home to help her parents, Fanny and Gardner, pack their things; they are moving from Boston to their summer cottage in Concuit. A promising young artist on the rise, she is also going to paint a portrait of them. But the painting of this portrait will be much more than the creating of a new piece of art for Mags; it will be a very personal and very trying test. Throughout the play, Howe reveals Mags' multifaceted mental and emotional problems and how her mother, while essentially a loving parent, contributed greatly to her daughter's lack of self-esteem and need to mask herself behind her work. She may even be responsible, and this thesis proves that Fanny Church subjected her only child to continuous psychological abuse, creating in her a deep-rooted psychosis. Birth and After Birth, written a decade earlier, examines some of the issues addressed in Painting Churches, and is basically used as backup evidence to help prove my theory.
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Fisher, Douglas. "One Day, Some Day." TopSCHOLAR®, 1996. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/867.
Full textAbstract:
When someone asks us how old we are, we tell them the number of years that we have lived. But those years are comprised of days: days that wrinkle our brows, burn searing holes in our souls, and those days--filled with joy, terror, humor, fear, and exasperation--are the sum totals of our age. One Day. Some Day is a collection of short fiction that deals with the events of one day in the life of the characters. The titles of the stories reflect this theme, i.e., "Thursday's Child, 11 "A Measure of Days," and "One of These Days." I have endeavored to inject my stories with the emotions and experiences that comprise our daily lives.
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Barsky, Carol. "Images of Art: Katherine Mansfield's Use of Line, Color, and Composition in Her Short Stories." TopSCHOLAR®, 1996. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/893.
Full textAbstract:
Katherine Mansfield's short stories include numerous visual images, many of which contribute significantly to the stories' moods and themes. Her visual imagery has been linked with literary devices such as symbolism and irony. This study, however, emphasizes three major principles of the visual arts apparent in her imagery—line, color, and composition—that also play important roles in imbuing a substantial number of her images with possible meaning. The prominence and skillful handling of these artistic techniques suggest that she purposely wove them into her works to produce psychological effects that induce moods or support themes. As a result, Mansfield successfully merged verbal and visual languages to promote a greater sensitivity to her characters' perceptions and feelings. Mansfield's ability to see and creatively imitate reality as painters do, her friendship with painters (particularly Dorothy Brett), and other documented evidence of a fascination with the visual arts point to an apparent dependence on artistic techniques and theories that add an essential dimension to many of her stories. The most compelling evidence, however, exists within the many visual images themselves.
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Caraher, Paul. "The Postmodern Improvisor." TopSCHOLAR®, 1995. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/900.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis represents a revitalization of the thesis form because it has organically blossomed from an integrated consciousness. Instead of the pre-existing thesis form for a Master of Arts Degree in English bending, limiting, and shaping the content, I have shaped the form according to my own synthetic ambition, resulting in a fusion of elements from both a researched and a creative thesis. This strategy is justified since the very subject of the thesis stresses the improviser's ongoing urge to create as the spontaneous moment/impulse requires while simultaneously creating an organic frame or unique inner logic. Above all, this project is a translation of autobiographical reflections which have crystalized years of intense struggle, culminating with my hard fought liberation from the hollow shell of garage band mediocrity.
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Gillam, Kenneth M. Neuleib Janice. "Toward an ecology of revision a revision model of chaos and cooperation /." Normal, Ill. : Illinois State University, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p3196646.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005.Title from title page screen, viewed September 25, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Janice Neuleib (chair), Bob Broad, Claire Lamonica. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-233) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Josaphat, Fabienne Sylvia. "Haiti, 1965 - A Novel." FIU Digital Commons, 2014. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1171.
Full textAbstract:
HAITI, 1965 is a historical novel set in Haiti where a struggling taxi driver, Raymond L’Eveillé, struggles to provide for his family under the rule of the infamous dictator François Duvalier Sr.
Raymond’s brother Nicolas, a professor and attorney, lives a more luxurious lifestyle, and both brothers are at odds over finances. When Nicolas decides to write a book about the crimes committed by the government, the inevitable happens. The brutal Tonton Macoutes militia raid his home and find notes that are as evidence enough to send him to Haiti's most notorious gulag of the era, Fort Dimanche, It will be up to Raymond to save his brother. He will have to use his resources and street smarts to get himself arrested, infiltrate the dungeons of Fort Dimanche to find Nicolas, and plan a near-impossible escape.
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Davis, Sarah A. "One thousand ways to be touched." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10263271.
Full textAbstract:
One Thousand Ways to be Touched is a collection of poetry that centers around female relationships, power dynamics, and the many ways that physical touch can affect the human psyche. The poems were written over the course of three years and display the many stages of my developing aesthetic. Although the subject matter varies from piece to piece, the arrangement is chronological starting with poems that stem from a child’s perspective.
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Campbell, Sam Nicole. "Blend it Like Beckett: Samuel Beckett and Experimental Contemporary Creative Writing." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2020. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3769.
Full textAbstract:
Samuel Beckett penned novels, short stories, poetry, stage plays, radio plays, and scripts—and he did each in a way that blended genre, challenged the norms of creative writing, and surprised audiences around the globe. His experimental approach to creative writing included the use of absurdism, genre-hybridization, and ergodicism, which led to Beckett fundamentally changing the approach to creative writing. His aesthetics have trickled down through the years and can be seen in contemporary works, including Aimee Bender’s short story collection The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves[1]. By examining these works in comparison to Beckett, this project hopes to illuminate the effects of Beckett’s experimentation in form and genre on contemporary creative writing.
[1] The word ‘house’ appears in blue to honor Danielewski’s decision to have the word printed in that color each time it appears in his novel.
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Bradway-Hesse, Becky Harris Charles B. "Rhetoric, belles lettres, and the emergence of writing programs in the American university." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p9924344.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1998.Title from title page screen, viewed July 13, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Charles Harris (chair), Ronald Fortune, Curtis White. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 304-316) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Bir, Elizabeth A. "Teaching matters pedagogical ideologies and success in the basic writing classroom /." Greensboro, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. http://libres.uncg.edu/edocs/etd/1510Bir/umi-uncg-1510.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 11, 2008). Directed by Nancy A. Myers; submitted to the Dept. of English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 176-186).