Date of Award

Fall 2023

Document Type

Thesis Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Committee Chairperson

Virginia Wood, PhD

Committee Member

Kyle Vealey, PhD

Committee Member

Timothy Ray, PhD

Committee Member

Jacqueline Alnes, PhD

Abstract

My goal as a writer is to step out of the traditional boundaries of fiction crime writing in novels while exploring the conflicts that occur in romantic relationships such as unfaithfulness, domestic violence, and abuse, and how these actions and emotions lead to a point of no return: spousal murder. Such cases have been made into television documentaries exploring these unthinkable, heinous, reprehensible crimes where viewers hear from the family members of the victim, police, news reporters, witnesses, etc. I aimed to explore these authentic dilemmas in short fiction in what I would argue to be a less common place in literature in the true crime and murder genres. As a writer, I hope to bring more attention to such real-life crimes and convicted perpetrators and be a part of the conversation on true crime in literature. My knowledge of similar murder cases draws from my inspiration on various novels in this genre. My stories focus on characters who are authentic people who have been betrayed in their marriages.

Download

Share

COinS