Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download campus access theses, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.

Non-UMass Amherst users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this thesis through interlibrary loan.

Theses that have an embargo placed on them will not be available to anyone until the embargo expires.

Title

Falling Rock

Access Type

Campus Access

Document Type

thesis

Degree Program

English

Degree Type

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

Year Degree Awarded

2012

Month Degree Awarded

September

Keywords

episodic novel

Abstract

This project is an episodic novel that revolves around the misadventures and exploits of Povi McDougal, head diversity consultant for G & K. She is responsible for the aggressive sensitivity training of new hires in the company’s bid to avoid future lawsuits. She is a nervy, disenfranchised, high-functioning alcoholic. When you think Povi,think binaries: she’s a bighearted misanthrope. She is furious yet wistful, knowing yet obtuse, and so forth. The episodes are all narrated by Povi and are very voice-driven. As a series of connected stories, the action is not in service to one primary plotline. There is, however, a narrative arc that follows Povi’s efforts to come to grips with her personal and ethnic identity, her troubled past and her self-imposed isolation. Central to these stories is a synthetic folklore. As a child, Povi’s father enrolled her in the Indian Princesses youth group at the YMCA in a misguided attempt to help her connect more fully with her Native American heritage. Figuring prominently in the girls’ mythology was the tale of Falling Rock, the highly sought after Indian princess who wanders into the woods to escape the fray of young braves who seek her hand in marriage. “Legend has it that Falling Rock becomes lost and is never heard from again. The group’s participants are told to be on the lookout for her whenever they see a yellow road sign bearing her name. In short, Povi is my Princess Falling Rock. Given her sense of disinheritance, it seems fitting that her folklore is synthetic, invented. Basically, I’ve gotten her to wander off into the woods for a bit of solitude, and I’ve kept her there for a while, as she tries to find her way back to her tribe – or some such suitable substitute for tribal affiliation, community, love, what have you.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/2959280

First Advisor

Noy Holland

COinS