Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Thesis (UNI Access Only)

Keywords

Women--Fiction; Nature--Fiction; Ecofeminism--Fiction; Sexual minorities--Fiction;

Abstract

This thesis contains the beginning chapters of a novel project titled The Trouble with Floating, featuring characters reflective of the basic plot of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, with nuances to reflect an ecofeminist and queer approach to the classic text. It is a celebration of nature and women, with reflection on the exploitation and domination of both.

Finch Caillouet stopped bleeding shortly after her twenty-seventh birthday and the salt stopped pouring from the cracks of the Caillouet caverns at the end of Spring. Grained salt, civilization’s primary natural resource, had once flowed freely and in abundance from the cracks in the firm stone walls. There were now remnants of filmy sodium and the thin, slow flow of a bubbling creek running through the hollowed pit where the raw material of the mineral deposit had been sourced and stored.

The Cliffers and the Coastals have feuded for generations over the commercialization and manufacturing process of salt collection. As the primary natural resource for the small country of Evanor, salt is life. The salt will stop pouring from the cracks of the already dug-out Caillouet-owned cavern walls soon, flooding through the thinned stone and consuming the Coast and all of those who live there. Finch is expected to step up and take control of the family business, but is conflicted as she has become a part of the Coastal community through her work as a fisher at the docks. That is, until Rue Morgan crashes the annual Caillouet Fundraiser and, most notably, right into Finch’s life. Rue is different from the people Finch spent most of her life around. She opposes cavern mining and is outspoken about the alternative measures that can be taken to provide for their people and keep them safe from the inevitable dangers of digging and sourcing from too many caverns, flooding on the Coast being particularly daunting. And, despite their feuding families and communities, she makes Finch’s heart race.

The narrative follows Finch as she navigates conflicting responsibilities to her family and herself, Rue in her fight to keep the Coast safe, and Oliver as he discovers what is going to be best for his future and the rest of their community.

Year of Submission

2022

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Languages and Literatures

First Advisor

Jeremy Schraffenberger, Chair, Thesis Committee

Date Original

5-2022

Object Description

1 PDF file (iii, 63 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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