Girl Talk: A Multi-Genre Coming of Age

Date of Graduation

Summer 2005

Degree

Master of Arts in Writing

Department

English

Committee Chair

Nancy Walker

Abstract

This thesis, a multi-genre collection of the writing I completed throughout my MA program, attempts to blur the boundaries of academic, creative, and personal writing, arguing by example that these forms can, as Jim Corder tells us, come toward and become one another. Additionally, this thesis explores how some of the fictional pieces included fit into the emerging genre dubbed chick lit, fiction from the tradition of Bridget Jones’ Diary and Sex in the City. What is unique about this new genre is that it can’t be codified or identified by singular characteristics, nor does it make the mistake that much American feminism has made by assuming there are essential characteristics that bind all women together. Instead, this genre acknowledges and highlights women’s differences, differences that I hope my disparate sampling of writing celebrates not only in its content but also in its composition of multiple forms of writing—all academic, creative, and personal.

Keywords

chick lit, creative nonfiction, postmodernist criticism, feminist literature, mixed-genre literature

Subject Categories

Creative Writing

Copyright

© Leslie Richardson

Citation-only

Dissertation/Thesis

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