DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/E16B-N764
Defense Date
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Thomas De Haven
Abstract
This contemporary young adult fantasy novel aims to challenge genre conventions around gender, race, and sexuality by having the protagonists (an assortment of young queer people) fighting not against a physically present villain, but against the driving force of “story”, which aims to reduce them to archetypal roles in order to act out familiar scenes. The Story attempts to force each of the four protagonists into roles (hero, monster, princess, witch) for which they are in some way fundamentally unsuited, and which would ultimately destroy them if they succeeded in conforming. This novel aims to call into question the motivations of archetypes in stories, and asks readers to examine how those archetypes resemble stereotypes. In this way, it also asks writers and other artists to consider their complicity in hegemonic thought through the perpetuation of stereotypes and norms in their writing and art as easy stand-ins for more complicated truth.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-2-2018