Date of Award

5-1-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Abstract

At this point in human history, those with the power to make decisions that effect the planetary climate often seem to be acting against the long-term survival of most humans. Given that globalized capitalism is more or less the law of the land, a situation wherein drinkable water and breathable air are acquired solely through transactional means is no longer inconceivable. At the same time, the promotion of technology as a distraction — either from humanity's imminent demise, or from the opportunism of those who would stop at nothing to retain power — becomes more and more pervasive. This thesis is roughly one-half of a pre-apocalyptic novel-in-progress entitled The New Color, which attempts to imagine a world in which the above scenario has already come to pass, and explores the effects that such a world might have on the individuals living in it. The plot can be most succinctly described as a simple love story that orients around the discovery of a new color. Three characters share the narrative point of view; these characters' individual arcs intersect within the larger narrative in ways both tangential and direct. I have done my best to balance the genre influences of speculative and/or dystopian fiction by creating and writing characters whose behavior and points of view are as psychologically realistic as those found in so-called "literary fiction," even if the situations and settings in which they find themselves have been exaggerated for rhetorical effect.

Handle

http://hdl.handle.net/11122/7586

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