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Alternative title

A Thesis in Perpetual Motion

Date of Award

Spring 2025

Document Type

Masters Thesis (Campus-Only Access)

Department or Program Affiliation

English Department, Creative Writing M.F.A.

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Orduña, José

Second Advisor

Araki-Kawaguchi, Kiik, 1983-

Third Advisor

Wise, Christopher, 1961-

Abstract

In the aftermath of an unfortunate early summer, July Meditations is all at once a story about grief, a dismantling of narrative function and a working study in genre’s relation to form. Characterized by disjointed, self-correcting and unreliable narration, malleable character description and in/external dialogue, the only voice left to trust as you wind through the prose becomes the writer themself. The story of a story being written. Effortlessly relayed attempts to tell, search for, and understand, the story. A compilation of successful failures, shorthanded attempts at excavation that leave both the reader and writer in a place of wanting. The thesis in the convex mirror: a narrator, smaller than they appear, shrinking in stature. What can the writer survive of their old selves? Where is the pulsating heart of a thesis? How is it that we arrive at art from grief? Where do you escape when your currency has no value? Where did the little boy go? What happens next? These are the July Meditations.

Type

Text

Keywords

autofiction, narratology, literature, creative writing, pessoa, calvino, beckett, metafiction, metanarrative, postmodernism, deconstruction

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

1519409227

Subjects – Names (LCNAF)

Pessoa, Fernando, 1888-1935--Criticism and interpretation; Calvino, Italo--Criticism and interpretation; Beckett, Samuel, 1906-1989--Criticism and interpretation

Subject – LCSH

Narration (Rhetoric); Literary form; Modernism (Literature); Postmodernism (Literature); Deconstruction

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

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