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oai:shareok.org:11244/3251692024-02-12T20:22:48Zcom_11244_323718com_11244_47149col_11244_324596

Squires, Constance Mirll, Teresa Givan, Christopher Petete, Timothy 2020-07-10T20:07:52Z 2020-07-10T20:07:52Z 2014 (AlmaMMSId)9980689285202196 https://hdl.handle.net/11244/325169 (OCoLC)ocn884920957 This collection of short stories follows the conventions of postmodern literary fiction, and features conflicts between middle-class family members who predominantly live in Texas and Oklahoma. My main objective in this thesis is twofold. First, I want to encourage my reader to step outside of his or her worldview and into a life unlike their own. The narrators in this collection range from a game warden in California to an eight-year-old schoolgirl from Texas. Each point-of-view character differs from the preceding or succeeding narrator in categories such as gender, age, location, and occupation. Secondly, I want readers to contemplate the pop-up principle, namely the notion that we are all flat characters in someone else's story. Like turning the pages of a children's pop-up book, every speaker first appears as a rounded individual, full of his or her own memories and goals and troubles, but in each ensuing tale, that same person flattens and merely serves as a background character in someone else's life. The narrators in these stories evaluate each other, and even judge one another, without fully understanding the situation of the previous speaker. This allows for a postmodern collection with a sense of dramatic irony between each segment--only the reader realizes the deeper connection between the individuals narrating. All rights reserved by the author, who has granted UCO Chambers Library the non-exclusive right to share this material in its online repositories. Contact UCO Chambers Library's Digital Initiatives Working Group at diwg@uco.edu for the permission policy on the use, reproduction or distribution of this material. Short stories, American The pop-up principle. Academic theses M.F.A., Creative Writing UCO - Graduate Works and Theses::UCO - Theses Jackson College of Graduate Studies open.access