Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List

Full text of this paper is not available in the ETD Center. Copies may be available for inter-library loan from Bowling Green State University or may be available for purchase from Proquest/UMI

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Game

Marker, Stephanie Ann
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1269021476

Abstract Details

2010, Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, Creative Writing/Fiction.
Overall, I see this collection as an anti-hero's journey arc. The stories are completely separate, not connected in any way other than theme, but the sections track a progression of thought, of experience, and, I hope, insight. Although these are fully separate characters, the progression of the state of being of each protagonist from story to story creates the anti-hero type feel that I believe shapes the collection. This anti-hero is a lost soul, whose story begins with ultimate loss, or destruction, of the world. It was definitely not a perfect world or a peaceful world or even a world in which the anti-hero was happy, but it was familiar and in that way comforting even in the worst of times. We meet this individual at the point when the bottom drops out and everything is violently ripped away, irreparably altered. After this has happened, the anti-hero enters into a static state of being. With nothing to go back to or any sort of future, the anti-hero is stuck in a painful place and doesn't belong. From this, the anti-hero moves toward a sense of awareness of the possibility of change and actively chooses to move away from the static state, bitterly at first, with one foot still firmly on the ground, and comes to peace with the fact that it is impossible to hold onto what was, that it's necessary to let go. Finally, the anti-hero is able to completely step away from the idea that there is only one way to interact with one's environment. I initially intended the final section to be more of a hopeful oblivion, with the world falling down around new ears to be later built back up. What ended up happening, though, is that I wrote three stories in which the characters are somehow destroyed and there's no telling what will come next for them. These characters are just as lost as the characters in the first section of the collection, and even, in a sense, static despite their transformation. In that sense, this collection is a never-ending causal loop, where it is impossible to gain new ground or any footing really, where questions remain unanswered if they are even fully formed in the first place. These stories are an exploration of some of the tragic aspects of the human condition, none provide guidance, only a sense of awareness, at best.
Lawrence Coates (Committee Chair)
Wendell Mayo (Committee Member)
Michael Czyzniejewski (Committee Member)
109 p.
Fine Arts

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Marker, S. A. (2010). The Game [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1269021476

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Marker, Stephanie. The Game. 2010. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1269021476.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Marker, Stephanie. "The Game." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1269021476

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1269021476