Date of Graduation
Fall 2016
Degree
Master of Arts in English
Department
English
Committee Chair
Jennifer Murvin
Abstract
The importance of memory to place is of particular interest to me and forms the basis for the bulk of my work. In my critical introduction I explore the work of authors and essayists who inspire my fiction work through their focus on place and memory. Specific authors include Sandra Cisneros, David Sedaris, and Pam Houston. Through my short fiction pieces I weave together the stories of my childhood from Florida to Missouri into a quilt that covers the important pieces of my life thus far. I am interested in how people are motivated by fear to write around their personal narratives and seek to understand how writers are able to conquer those fears through their writing. Through characters based in memory and those crafted from the history and folklore of the places I've called home I present a collection of fiction through the scope of a person without an attachment to any one place in particular, but to a handful of places that she calls home.
Keywords
fiction, creative nonfiction, place, memory, Florida, Missouri
Subject Categories
English Language and Literature
Copyright
© Kaycie Surrell
Recommended Citation
Surrell, Kaycie, "Swamp Boat, Gravy Boat: Memory And Place In Fiction" (2016). MSU Graduate Theses. 3048.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/3048
