Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Department

English

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

I am not going to gut my thesis like a fish. To give you an “abstract” is to give you the “big picture” of this intricate, complex work. I don’t know “love” or “hope” or “humanity” or “loss.” I know a wooden rocking horse, the touch of bare feet on a cold tile floor, the bond I feel when driving for hours on the interstate behind the same car, the sudden hint of despair that comes over me when the car begins to veer toward the exit, as if I’m losing my travel companion. To give you the “big picture” is to write philosophically, transcendently, to paint one broad stroke. I am not a theoretical writer. This is not a theoretical memoir. I think only slightly less forthright than the stink of wheat germ. To read creative nonfiction is to be both consoled and appalled, to feel like you just became smaller in this really big world, but also, to feel more a part of it than you ever have before. This is a deliberate, poignant memoir. It’s not abstract. It cannot be put in one broad stroke. It’s a Van Gogh. It’s “Starry Night.” It asks big questions. And it offers no easy answers.

Advisor(s) or Committee Chair

Dr. Dale Rigby

Disciplines

Creative Writing

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