Inheritance: A linked short story collection
Date
2022-08-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0002-2026-5618
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Inheritance is a linked short story collection of eight fictional narratives of lives impacted by interpersonal violence and abuse, along with the myriad of complexities we navigate through the course of our daily lives. Fictional stories often portray those who have experienced gendered violence as victims or as permanently harmed. Constructing victimized people as silenced, harmed, or controlled suggests they are without agency and contributes to what Lindsay O’Dell calls the harm story, a “highly singularized ‘story’ of psychological harm in which one story speaks for all women’s experiences” (131). To disrupt this harm story, I look to the linked short story collection genre, which captures the complex, multiple and seemingly conflicting aspects of peoples’ lives by telling a broader story through choice of characters, structure of stories, and point of view.
Description
Keywords
Linked short story collection, gender-based violence, fiction
Citation
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Department
English
Program
Writing