Date of Award
Spring 4-30-2003
Degree Type
Capstone
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Professional Writing
Department
Department of Einglish In the College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Committee Chair/First Advisor
Hill
Abstract
In my own work, I'm striving to create heroines who are strong and self-sufficient while retaining the inner vulnerabilities, emotions, and motivations that make them women. In traditional stories, male protagonists are often portrayed as action-oriented heroes with identities determined by divine right or loyalty to the king. Their greatest weakness is often love of a woman and their inner thoughts are never part of the story. It's all about the deeds they accomplish. My heroine must develop her identity for herself and her inner thoughts, often doubts and fears, are shared with the audience throughout the narrative as part of the journey towards her identity. She is motivated, not by loyalty or hope of glory, but by love of her homeland and her adopted family. The Halfling of Cannallaith is the first book in a planned tetralogy. The protagonist is an adolescent on the verge of womanhood, trying to balance multiple roles, not all of them condoned by her society. She is both faery and human, healer and swordswoman. Her quest for inner peace is set against the backdrop of a fictional land on the brink of war.