A place we can't go
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Kelsey Leigh Hales (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Pamela Duncan
Abstract: A Place We Can’t Go To: Stories is a collection of five short stories written in the genre of magical realism. Throughout the five stories, characters move through surreal or dreamlike landscapes, trying to escape, find happiness, or just understand the world around them. Characters include a larger-than-life man on a mission from God, a woman trapped in a mysterious village with no recollection of how she arrived there, a rebellious soul Reaper attempting to wipe out the human population, a man attempting to salvage his marriage with a strange chair, and a mother attempting to answer her child’s questions as creatively as she can. The five stories, entitled “Josiah’s Bells”, “Pylar’s Sunshine Chair”, “The Train”, “What is a Night Mommy? & Other Strange Questions”, and “Ree”, all serve to provide readers with a visceral experience. Each story explores the intricacies of human relationships with their own mortality. These stories were originally planned to be interconnected, with reoccurring characters and similar landscapes. However, as the thesis progressed, A Place We Can’t Go To: Stories evolved into a collection of stories that revolved around similar themes and stylistic choices. Stylistic choices range from writing in first person to third person, as well as switching between heavily descriptive language, dialogue-heavy prose, and action-related prose. Inside these stories are elements of the surreal and the magical. The unexplained offers the reader a sense of imagination and freedom, one that allows them to focus more clearly on the themes and elements of importance. Interconnected themes include life, death, the feelings of absence and loneliness, and how they affect the human psyche.
A place we can't go
PDF (Portable Document Format)
470 KB
Created on 4/1/2015
Views: 702
Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2015
- Keywords
- fiction, magical realism, short stories
- Subjects
- Magic realism (Literature)