FOUND OBJECTS AND FICTIONAL FINDS: Selections from Novella and Collected Short Stories
Date
2015
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MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa
Abstract
The stories in FOUND OBJECTS AND OTHER FICTIONAL FINDS explore themes of
identity, hope, masculinity, family, and the absurdities of the modern human condition.
Using at times satire and aspects of the absurd, this thesis looks at how we navigate the
sometimes unexpected turns life takes. In Found Objects, aspects of the grotesque are
applied to a story where a man’s discovery of a severed foot on the side of the road gives
his dying southern town a new sense of hope. In La Cobija, masculine stereotypes and
cultural biases and confronted and smashed in central Mexico. Stories like Standing For
Something, Aunt Marie, and Squirrel Deaths and Towel Makes Heat use the absurd to
extract the marvelous from the mundane. Many of the stories find objects as central to
the plot, like in Dolores, where a stuffed fish conjures memories of a dying father’s
better days as he sees his son for the last time. And, in Juan Pachanga, a day out with a
girlfriend’s father, a stripclub and a latex vagina, leads to the discovery of secret and a
decision about the future of their relationship.
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Keywords
Family, Short stories