Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Fine Arts
Major
Creative Writing
Date of Defense
4-21-2025
Graduate Advisor
John Dalton
Committee
John Dalton
Shane Seely
Mary Troy
Abstract
Musings is a collection of short works in multiple genres of creative writing. The first three are short stories: “Intrepid” looks at two political stereotypes, humanizing and dehumanizing one and the other; “The Heart in the Beach Grass” dabbles in magical realism with an aim to look at the human tendency toward self-interest; and “Golden Love” considers the insecurity of a wedding night late in life. Included is a meditative short piece, “Golden Love: (A Deleted) Prologue,” originally intended as a prologue to “Golden Love” though its dramatically contrasting tone makes that pairing unlikely. The two essays include a creative narrative, “Turtling,” the writer’s recollection of an early exposure to the objectification of women and “The Cult of Good and Evil,” a creative nonfiction essay that considers why people judge and uses society’s fascination with cults as a launchpad. Lastly, “All You Need Is Love” is a comic, written and drawn by this author, that pokes fun at tropes rife in online dating while acknowledging the struggle to accept singlehood later in life.
Recommended Citation
Dodson, Jennifer L., "Musings: A Multi-Genre Collection of Creative Writing" (2025). Theses. 506.
https://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/506