Frank Blank

Doctoral Dissertation Announcement

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Candidate: Emily Stinson

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: English

Title: Creatures after Their Kind

Committee:
Dr. Jaimy Gordon, Chair
Dr. Jil Larson
Dr. Steve Feffer
Dr. Peter Bickle

Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
2033 Brown Hall

Abstract:
Creatures after Their Kind is a collection of six short stories that explores the importance of myth, memory, tradition, and place within a Southern context. The setting for the collection is the rural South and, in the vein of William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha and Eudora Welty’s Morgana—and more recently William Gay’s Ackerman’s Field and Jill McCorkle’s Fulton, North Carolina—many of the stories take place in fictional Benosha County, Mississippi. The collection also reflects the communion between animals and people, and as such, animals of all varieties—both domestic and wild—populate the stories. The title, Creatures after Their Kind, is taken from the book of Genesis and serves as a unifying link between the characters’ animalistic nature and their desire to maintain traditions that are on the cusp of fading out entirely.