The Daughters of Bridget McGhee

When Huxley proposed, Blythe imagined herself fifty years into the future at his funeral. He was such a good man, they’d say. Seventy-two is too young, they’d say. She’d nod and, she had imagined, remember this moment – them lounging in her bed during the early afternoon with the sunlight threatening to burst from behind the drawn shades, him lying on his side with his left arm anchored around her waist, and the tickle of his thumb as he traced circles on her bellybutton. She rubbed her nose against his neck and breathed. His scent was different from that of Walter. Huxley smelled of pears and basil. Walter smelled of leather and soap. She didn’t smell Walter intentionally, of course. He walked into the White Dog the prior day while she was drinking a mint-mocha cappuccino and studying for an exam on medical physiology. The wind whiffed his odor towards her. She didn’t look at him, but she couldn’t stop from inhaling. “People get married after college,” Huxley swung his right leg over and straddled her, forcing her to look at him. “It’s almost been a year since we graduated. It’s what we should do.” She had wondered if he could donate organs if he were seventy-two years old. Not his liver or heart or anything like that, of course, but maybe his eyes. It’d be a shame if they couldn’t preserve his eyes. She noticed them first: they were alert and misty blue, like Santa’s. But then she wondered if eye characteristics like color were even changed during cornea transplants. Walter had plain brown eyes. She hated brown eyes. She told people that she had brown eyes, because they were dark and no one ever looked close enough. Except Huxley. They were at dinner with mutual friends and were talking about eye color, and how they all wished that theirs were like those of the young Afghan girl on the 1985 cover of National Geographic.

Wild Violets

Wild Violets is an extended work of nonfiction that explores various themes related to loss, illness, and the nature of family. It’s very much a story of matriarchal connections. The narrative primarily traces the complicated but gratifying relationships between myself and the other women in my family—my maternal grandmother, my mother, and my two younger sisters.

Poetry Chapbook: Red Light Laughter

"Red Light Laughter" is a poetry chapbook containing 20 poems written and edited extensively by Marcus Lloyd Rummell. The poetry included ranges from as recent as April 2010 to as late as January 2009. The book also contains notes, for reference when necessary, and was professionally designed by Lindsey Voskowsky, who is currently employed at the Yale Center of Design.

Utopía y distopía en El oído absoluto de Marcelo Cohen

La novela de Marcelo Cohen, El oído absoluto, constituye dentro del sistema de la narrativa argentina, un ejemplo interesante y original por su relación con el género utópico. En efecto, el mundo posible creado por el texto para enmarcar la peripecia de los protagonistas: Evelino Borusso, Clarisa Wald, el padre de ésta, cuyo nombre original -León- ha devenido en Lotario, Tristán (nombres en los cuales es dable percibir un dejo de ironía que es la característica de toda la narración) se dan muchas de las características (insularidad, dirigismo, colectivismo, gobierno patriarcal regido por un grupo de filósofos o notables) y de las virtudes ensalzadas en la utopía clásica (el espíritu comunitario, la valoración del trabajo en detrimento del ocio, el desdén por el dinero). Pero al mismo tiempo se socavan, desde las dudas del narrador y de los personajes, las raíces mismas de ese mundo perfecto, y se reclama por una nueva utopía -a música, el lenguaje, la creación novelesca...- que cale más hondo en la intimidad, para clausurar, de una vez para siempre, la soledad y la incomunicación erigidos en puntos centrales de la meditación que la novela propone.

La creación del espacio poético en Momento de Simetría (1973) de Arturo Carrera y en sus manuscritos : Una constante formación de la materia escrituaria

El trabajo explora, desde los aportes de la crítica genética y literaria, la construcción del espacio poético y sus espacios creativos de escritura. Para ello se cuenta con manuscritos del poeta argentino Arturo Carrera, pertenecientes a su segunda obra édita, Momento de simetría [1973]. Partiendo de una referencia astronómica existente en el poemario se revisa lo dicho por la crítica literaria argentina sobre la obra del autor así como también la posibilidad de leer el mapa poético y sus manuscritos como imágenes estéticas en suspensión. Por este motivo, el trabajo cuenta además con un Anexo (en CD) con las imágenes digitales del Archivo Momento de simetría y sus correspondientes transcripciones, a fin de que el lector pueda ir y venir del texto a las imágenes -y viceversa- y construir dicho recorrido

La creación del espacio poético en Momento de Simetría (1973) de Arturo Carrera y en sus manuscritos : Una constante formación de la materia escrituaria

El trabajo explora, desde los aportes de la crítica genética y literaria, la construcción del espacio poético y sus espacios creativos de escritura. Para ello se cuenta con manuscritos del poeta argentino Arturo Carrera, pertenecientes a su segunda obra édita, Momento de simetría [1973]. Partiendo de una referencia astronómica existente en el poemario se revisa lo dicho por la crítica literaria argentina sobre la obra del autor así como también la posibilidad de leer el mapa poético y sus manuscritos como imágenes estéticas en suspensión. Por este motivo, el trabajo cuenta además con un Anexo (en CD) con las imágenes digitales del Archivo Momento de simetría y sus correspondientes transcripciones, a fin de que el lector pueda ir y venir del texto a las imágenes -y viceversa- y construir dicho recorrido

La creación del espacio poético en Momento de Simetría (1973) de Arturo Carrera y en sus manuscritos : Una constante formación de la materia escrituaria

El trabajo explora, desde los aportes de la crítica genética y literaria, la construcción del espacio poético y sus espacios creativos de escritura. Para ello se cuenta con manuscritos del poeta argentino Arturo Carrera, pertenecientes a su segunda obra édita, Momento de simetría [1973]. Partiendo de una referencia astronómica existente en el poemario se revisa lo dicho por la crítica literaria argentina sobre la obra del autor así como también la posibilidad de leer el mapa poético y sus manuscritos como imágenes estéticas en suspensión. Por este motivo, el trabajo cuenta además con un Anexo (en CD) con las imágenes digitales del Archivo Momento de simetría y sus correspondientes transcripciones, a fin de que el lector pueda ir y venir del texto a las imágenes -y viceversa- y construir dicho recorrido

Eruv

(Included in primary document)

Buried Truth

Important events often go untold or are a blur of headlines and thirty-second sound bites. Narrative nonfiction crime writing, however, explores societal flaws in depth and can lead to greater awareness of a litany of public issues. The genre sparks the senses, evokes emotion, and exposes the human condition. Nearly thirty years ago, the remains of four people were discovered in Colorado who had been murdered violently. One was a hard-working truck driver. The other three were transient men, each trying to eke out a meager existence. Their collective story is about how they suffered and lost, and it involves determined detectives, a ruthless killer and his family, and a judicial and interagency law-enforcement system that succeeded and also failed.

Dragon Tears: Highlighting the Christian Salvation Message Through the Use of Allegorical Fantasy Fiction

The recent movie versions of the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy have raised in the publishing world a public demand for good quality fantasy fiction that can be used as a teaching tool for spreading the Christian salvation message. Dragon Tears was written to fulfill this need, providing young adult readers with both an engaging fantasy story and at the same time, an allegorical format through which to receive the Christian salvation story. Dragon Tears draws its foundational material from two educational backgrounds in religion and creative writing.

Slim Styles and the Brothers of the Light

Slim Styles and the Brothers of the Light consists of a short novella, intended to be part of a series, introduced by a narrative essay. The work is about the search for identity, the pursuit of happiness, and the struggle to maintain self assurance while finding a place in the world. The story follows the main character as he slowly learns the truth about an organization he joined looking for a sense of value and worth. With his back against the wall he has to return to the home he was taught to be ashamed of, face the friends he left behind, and apologize to the lover he took for granted. The manuscript is a work in progress.

Life After Letty

Life after Letty is a novel that explores themes of isolation, belonging and life after death. Its primary question explores what happens if our answers about life do not become clear at death. It is set in an alternate reality in which the protagonist, Letty, exists beyond the point of her death. Trapped in a type of unbearable ennui, Letty struggles to find meaning in her afterlife. She is isolated from her surroundings and has lost her reason for existing. Upon meeting Michael, Letty is exposed to a new way of looking at death. Michael shows Letty the importance of cultivating her own meaning and purpose. Everything she believes about reality is challenged and transformed through her relationship with Michael.

Blogs para la enseñanza de literatura infantil y juvenil en español: espacio central de la LIJ 2.0

Para analizar la recepción de las obras de literatura infantil y juvenil en internet, los blogs continúan siendo un espacio fundamental para la opinión crítica, la reflexión académica y la práctica docente configurándose como eje central del concepto LIJ 2.0. Después de analizar dicho concepto, se presentarán en primer lugar los principales blogs de la LIJ en castellano, donde encontramos espacios de escritores e ilustradores, propuestas de animación a la lectura, repositorios de obras y crítica literaria, centrándonos más en la parte de difusión y animación a la lectura que en la de creación literaria. Posteriormente se presentarán el recorrido didáctico realizado a lo largo de cinco años en la Universidad de Alicante para explotar dichas herramientas en distintos niveles educativos.

Fleshing Out and Losing Flesh: The Decomposing Corpse as Narrative Object in American Hardboiled Detective Fiction

This dissertation examines the corpse as an object in and of American hardboiled detective fiction written between 1920 and 1950. I deploy several theoretical frames, including narratology, body-as-text theory, object relations theory, and genre theory, in order to demonstrate the significance of objects, symbols, and things primarily in the clever and crafty work of Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) and Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), but also touching on the writings of their lesser known accomplices. I construct a literary genealogy of American hardboiled detective fiction originating in the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, compare the contributions of classic or Golden Age detective fiction in England, and describe the socio-economic contexts, particularly the predominance of the “pulps,” that gave birth to the realism of the Hardboiled School. Taking seriously Chandler’s obsession with the art of murder, I engage with how authors pre-empt their readers’ knowledge of the tricks of the trade and manipulate their expectations, as well as discuss the characteristics and effect of the inimitable hardboiled style, its sharpshooting language and deadpan humour. Critical scholarship has rarely addressed the body and figure of the corpse, preferring to focus instead on the machinations of the femme fatale, the performance of masculinity, or the prevalence of violence. I cast new light on the world of hardboiled detective fiction by dissecting the corpse as the object that both motivates and de-composes (or rots away from) the narrative that makes it signify. I treat the corpse as an inanimate object, indifferent to representation, that destabilizes the integrity and self-possession, as well as the ratiocination, of the detective who authors the narrative of how the corpse came to be. The corpse is all deceptive and dangerous surface rather than the container of hidden depths of life and meaning that the detective hopes to uncover and reconstruct. I conclude with a chapter that is both critical denouement and creative writing experiment to reveal the self-reflexive (and at times metafictional) dimensions of hardboiled fiction. My dissertation, too, in the manner of hardboiled fiction, hopes to incriminate my readers as much as enlighten them.

Palavras que nos embalam: a escrita criativa no 1º ciclo do ensino básico

A leitura e a escrita mantêm entre si relações de grande proximidade sendo praticamente indissociáveis. Na verdade, nas últimas décadas, a investigação tem vindo a demonstrar que a aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita se processa praticamente em simultâneo e que, ao longo do processo de ensino-aprendizagem, essa relação entre os dois domínios se vai intensificando. Assim, sabemos hoje, que quanto mais se lê melhor se escreve, da mesma forma que quanto mais se escreve maior é a capacidade de compreender os textos lidos. Ao professor de Português compete a tarefa de desenvolver nos seus alunos, em qualquer nível de ensino, competências várias em todos os domínios contemplados nos documentos legais e programáticos em vigor. No entanto, e dada a natureza deste Relatório Final de Prática de Ensino Supervisionada, não podemos deixar de frisar que, relativamente aos domínios da leitura e da escrita, o professor de língua materna deve promover e estimular nos seus alunos o desenvolvimento gradual e articulado de competências relacionadas com a compreensão leitora e a expressão escrita, nas suas várias dimensões – ortográfica, textual e criativa. Encarando a escrita criativa como uma modalidade fundamental para a criança, não só por alargar a sua capacidade imaginativa, mas também por permitir adquirir, consolidar e utilizar com progressiva autonomia e criatividade todos os aspetos relacionados com a estrutura da língua, perspetivamo-la como fundamental nas aulas de Português, pelas potencialidades de que a mesma se reveste e não apenas como ferramenta utilizada para desbloquear nos alunos o receio da página em branco. Daí que tenhamos concebido e implementado, numa sala de 3º ano de escolaridade, num dos agrupamentos de escolas de Portalegre, um projeto de investigação-ação centrado no domínio da escrita criativa, mas alicerçado em práticas de leitura compreensiva de textos literários, práticas essas que antecederam os momentos de escrita. Desse projeto em particular, e das atividades implementadas ao longo da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada nas diversas disciplinas em geral, no 1º e no 2º CEB, dar-se-á conta, de forma reflexiva, neste Relatório Final.