Date of Graduation

Summer 2017

Degree

Master of Arts in English

Department

English

Committee Chair

Jennifer Murvin

Abstract

This thesis begins with a critical introduction on setting and its influence on the characters and overall effect on the fictional narrative. I use Lubomir Dolezel’s theory of narrative worlds and modalities, specifically the alethic constraints that come with world building to analyze across literary genres of fiction. I argue that genre has developed into a spectrum rather than having clear cut guidelines per genre specification ranging from realism to high fantasy. After the critical introduction you will find short stories and flash fiction all built within the same story world. Each of the stories contains similar theme of children both lost and found along with coming of age and how these instances that shape childhood affect adulthood. The title story, “Boys Club,” explores the grouping of childhood friends using a collective narrator, and stories following it focalize on the individual lives of the same characters—some in childhood, others in adulthood.

Keywords

genre fiction, narrative worlds of fiction, setting in fiction, coming of age, short story

Subject Categories

Fiction

Copyright

© Elizabeth Fiset

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