Undergraduate thesis exploring how the economic collapse of Zimbabwe from 2000 to 2009 has been expressed in literature by Zimbabwean writers. It seeks to establish a connection between the strong-government controls of information in the media and the politicized nature of fiction during this period. It examines the nationalist narrative created by the Zimbabwean government and shows how the works of fiction of writers like Brian Chikwava and Petina Gappah have undermined this narrative by revealing parallel narratives that reveal the spin the government has put on society.

The dissertation consists of a critical preface and a novel. The preface analyzes what it terms “polyvocal” novels, or novels employing multiple points of view, as well as “layered storytelling,” or layers of textuality within novels, such as stories within stories. Specifically, the first part of the preface discusses polyvocality in twenty-first century American novels, while the second part explores layered storytelling in novels responding to World War II or the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The preface analyzes the advantages and difficulties connected to these techniques, as well as their aptitude for reflecting the fractured, disconnected, and subjective nature of the narratives we construct to interpret traumatic experiences. It also acknowledges the necessity—despite its inherent limitations—of using language to engage with this fragmentation and cope with its challenges. The preface uses numerous novels as examples and case studies, and it also explores these concepts and techniques in relation to the process of writing the novel After the Planes. After the Planes depicts multiple generations of a family who utilize storytelling as a means to work through grief, hurt, misunderstanding, and loss—whether from interpersonal conflicts or from war. Against her father’s wishes, a young woman moves in with her nearly-unknown grandfather, …

Undergraduate thesis exploring criticisms of patriarchy in women's captivity narratives by examining Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (1862) and Sarah Wakefield's Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees: A Narrative of Indian Captivity (1862). Both used their socially acceptable roles in order to assert their own ideas regarding the patriarchy. The author concludes that both narratives therefore assert that patriarchal societies did not necessarily produce justice for English or American women who were a part of these societies, or for the Dakota Indians who lived in close contact with a patriarchal society.