Degree Name

MA (Master of Arts)

Program

English

Date of Award

5-2006

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Theresa A. Lloyd

Committee Members

Jeffrey Powers-Beck, Michael A. Cody

Abstract

For centuries we have taken for granted Aristotle's assertion that fiction must encourage emotional identification by representing life realistically. With the development of a more pluralistic society, Postmodernist writiers have come to question that assumption. Having repudiated our ancestor's notions of identity, these writers create stories whose sole purpose is to comment on other stories. However, as some feminist critics have shown us, we must each have an identity in order to have the collaborative society that is the Postmodernist's goal. Therefore, the notion that a story must make a sensory impression on us and stand on its own as a story in itself is just as valid today as it was in the past.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

Included in

Fiction Commons

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