Graduation Date
5-2014
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department or Program
Graduate Humanities
Department or Program Chair
Laura Stivers, PhD
First Reader
Joan Baranow, PhD
Second Reader
Thomas Burke, MFA
Abstract
Prohibition had an unexpected side effect: writers who wanted to see themselves as creative nonconformists began to flaunt their relationship with alcohol, adopting the persona of the charmingly and recklessly defiant individualist. Alcohol has been imagined as the writer’s muse and has assumed a prominent role in countless works of fiction. My culminating project is a collection of stories and poetry with that common thread: alcohol. Borrowing from the Humanist Alternative of the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Steps, the collection is arranged into twelve sections, each headed by and inspired by a step in the program. My intent is not to disparage these steps but to illustrate how characters struggle with the principles of sobriety. Fiction can probe the profound effects of alcoholism on individuals, families, friends and society. My hope is that these pieces give the reader the opportunity to explore a character’s life and feelings and in this way perhaps give a face to the often complex experiences of alcoholism. As the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book asserts, storytelling can be healing medicine.