Date of Graduation
Fall 2022
Degree
Master of Arts in English
Department
English
Committee Chair
Jennifer Murvin
Abstract
This creative thesis includes six flash nonfiction pieces and four essays exploring my relationships with my father, mother, and older sister; this exploration is filtered through the lenses of trauma and mental illness. Notably, five of the six flash nonfiction pieces are written in the literary mode of magical realism, which are analyzed in this thesis’ critical introduction. By evaluating magical realism’s origins in German surrealism and its development within Latin-America—as well as its theoretical correlation to Charles Baxter’s defamiliarization and Milan Kundera’s appeal of dream—I acknowledge magical realism’s literary techniques and cultural motivations within published fiction. I analyze magical realism’s growing influence in creative nonfiction, specifically within poetry and memoirs by Natalie Diaz and Sofia Samatar; this analysis is used as a foundation for analyzing my own magical realist flash nonfiction pieces included in this thesis. Through this critical discussion, I support magical realism as a viable method for creative nonfiction writers to use when processing and sharing stories of trauma and otherness.
Keywords
creative writing, creative nonfiction, lyric essays, magical realism, family, mental health, disabilities, LGBTQ+, spirituality
Subject Categories
Nonfiction
Copyright
© Rebecca Ann Harris
Recommended Citation
Harris, Rebecca Ann, "The Me [Unnamed]: Essays" (2022). MSU Graduate Theses/Dissertations. 3812.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/3812
