Date of Award
Fall 12-14-2022
Degree Type
Capstone
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Professional Writing (MAPW)
Department
English
Committee Chair/First Advisor
Professor Gerrard Conley
Co-Chair
Professor Melanie Sumner
Abstract
Abstract
Unclean and Unforgiveable
Unclean and Unforgiveable is a historical medical drama wherein the protagonist, Victoria Evans, travels to Richmond, Virginia, to become a nurse trainee in 1862. Using archival and bibliographic research, this writer constructed authoritative, realistic, and emotionally charged scenes for readers to experience the brutalities of war and the harsh realities of nursing in the South. Yet for all her laborious duties carried out with diligence and devotion, Victoria’s beloved Virginia is decimated, and her family is destroyed. Her one marketable skill is nursing using proper hygienic and cleansing techniques. This brings her to the attention of a Southern surgeon, Dr. Nicholas Barton, fictional cousin to Clara Barton. Victoria and Dr. Barton work to establish these hygienic methods that prevent the spread of infection as standard protocols in all hospitals and to be used by all doctors and nurses in the United States. However, established and old-school doctors consider germ theory to be too radical and detrimental to the medical field and undermine Dr. Barton and Victoria’s efforts at every turn.