That one place and other stories
Date
2021
Authors
Craig, Katherine, author
Levy, EJ, advisor
Alexander, Ruth, committee member
Ausubel, Ramona, committee member
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Abstract
That One Place and Other Stories is a collection of nine short pieces of fiction, each of which explores relationships amid extreme circumstances and the consumer culture of the late-20th- and early-21st-century United States. The protagonists, primarily women in Colorado, grapple with the misconception of personal value being defined by hyper productivity, competitive consumerism and individual contribution in the years leading up to the Coronavirus pandemic. Characters struggle to perform their various societal roles in the midst of circumstances for which they are unprepared, grappling with how to act in the face of uncertainty. They also wrestle with the increasing commodification of self and time, as the flexibility of working anywhere and anytime morphs into an expectation of working everywhere at all times, even to the extent of economizing social interactions via transactional relationships and accumulating endorsements of personal branding. The pieces experiment with a variety of points of view as they serve the individual stories at hand, investigating what it means to come of age and parent; to live, love and confront death; and ultimately to persist or surrender in late capitalist communities at the turn of the 21st century.
Description
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