Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Department

English

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

National parks are symbols of national identity. They tell the history of places—personal legacies and natural phenomena. My Capstone Experience/Thesis (CE/T) project for the Honors College at WKU features two stories that fuse fiction and non-fiction conventions to share the experiences of national parks in Kentucky. Currently, the National Park Service is celebrating its centennial anniversary at parks across the nation. First established in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson, the national parks have become symbols of the quintessential American experience: serving as memorials to nature, to history, and to culture. As such, these stories that take place at Mammoth Cave National Park and Abraham Lincoln’s Birthplace, respectively, tell stories that take place in greater pictures. These characters visit the parks, learn from them and embrace them, and carry those lessons into their everyday lives: collective moments in a greater story. In sharing these stories of the parks themselves and the visitors crossing their threshold, American culture continues to move forward—growing and evolving—to paint a greater overarching depiction of our society.

Advisor(s) or Committee Chair

Dr. Judith Szerdahelyi

Disciplines

Fiction | Nature and Society Relations

Download

Share

COinS