Date of Award
2017
Degree Name
English
College
College of Liberal Arts
Type of Degree
M.A.
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Anthony Viola
Second Advisor
Daniel O’Malley
Third Advisor
Kristin Steele
Abstract
Bad Things to Good People: Stories is a brief collection of five fictional short stories. As the collection’s title, which also serves as a bookending table of contents, indicates, these stories focus on the wide-ranging idea of bad things happening to good people. Written mostly in the literary style of minimalism, these stories explore various themes which circulate around topics such as: relationships, both familial and romantic, grieving losses, and a basic human need to make meaning of the sometimes-troubling events in one’s life. In the introduction to this collection, the stories offered here are compared alongside the works of some of the author’s biggest literary influences, which include Amy Hempel, Raymond Carver, and Susan Minot. This introductory analysis is also accompanied by an examination of the author’s work and the work of published authors in conjunction with the theoretical frameworks of minimalist writing set forth in Cynthia Hallett’s Minimalism and the Short Story as well as Forrest Ingram’s ideas concerning short story cycles found in his book Representative Short Story Cycles of the Twentieth Century.
Subject(s)
Creative writing.
Minimalism (Literature).
Short stories, American.
Recommended Citation
Brewer, Christopher Ryne, "Bad things to good people: Stories" (2017). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 1099.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/1099
