The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Laura Smith will present Master’s research titled, THE DIFFERENT SHADES OF LIARS: FOUR CHAPTERS OF LITERARY FICTION WITH CRAFT ESSAY on 11/04/2022 at 10:30 a.m. in Lupton Room 372. Everyone is invited to attend.
English
Chair: Dr. Karen Babine
Co-Chair:
Abstract:
This creative writing thesis has two parts. Part one is an 11-page craft paper, examining and exploring the craft elements involved in writing about the passage of time in fiction narratives. Using examples from other craft scholars and excerpts from various fiction novels, I analyze the impact of time-passage techniques on both the narrative text and the reader. The second part of this thesis is the prologue and first four chapters of a literary fiction novel with elements of magical realism. The novel follows the story of Virginia, a seventeen-year-old girl who has recently moved to a new town in rural South Georgia for her father’s work as a Methodist pastor. With an already complicated family and social dynamic, her view of the world is further complicated because of her ability to see “auras,” the physical representation of each person’s true motives and moods through specific colors that surround them, an ability that she gained as a result of a car accident. With this unique view of the world, she struggles to cope with the differences around the words and actions of those around her and the true intent that only she can see.