Date of Award
2017
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
Art
Sub-Department
Creative Writing
First Advisor
Elise Blackwell
Abstract
Elsewhere, Then is a cross-generational road novel that traces the sociopolitical and personal narrative of a family through a musician making her way from Savannah to San Francisco. Traditional road narratives have long depicted the lone female traveller as being subject to violence when stepping outside the domestic sphere, which echoes history's larger and pervasive trend of denying women agency through silence and subjugation—in life, as in stories. The novel interrogates how (and by whom) narratives are created, embellished, changed, and/or discarded through the narrator's temporal and spatial journey. A guiding force behind the novel is William H. Whyte's idea of “triangulation,” which suggests performative interaction in public spaces (like busking) can transform our perception of strangers thereby enlarging our capacity for connection. It is my belief that, like the narrator's avocation as busker, stories should transform the page into a source of reconsideration, empathy, and wonder for the reader—into something that can help them see a little sharper.
Rights
© 2017, Tracie Renée Dawson
Recommended Citation
Dawson, T. R.(2017). Elsewhere, Then. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/4193