Terror, avant-garde, 2022

Item — Call Number: MU Thesis Bat

Identifier: b7930854

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The collection consists of theses written by students enrolled in the Monmouth University graduate English program. The holdings are primarily bound print documents that were submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Master of Arts or Master of Fine Arts degrees.

From the Collection:

Students become eligible to pursue the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree if they have obtained a Master of Arts (M.A.) in English from Monmouth University and demonstrate a proficiency for creative writing through a thesis or equivalent work.

From the Collection:

After completing their 30-credit M.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration, Monmouth’s M.F.A. students take an additional 18 credits of intensive creative writing study that includes the completion of a book-length Creative Thesis.

From the Collection:

During the fall 2022 semester (in instances where the requisite waivers were received from consenting student authors), the Monmouth University Library, together with the University's Graduate School and Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences, began providing open access to select full-text digital versions of current theses and dissertations through links to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global website in the Library's Online Public Access Catalog. Links to these open access digital publications can also be found in the "External Documents" section under any conforming titles that are listed among the holdings itemized in the collection inventory for this finding aid.

Dates

Creation: 2022

Creator

Bates, Faith A. (Faith Ann) (1999- ) (Author, Person)
Gilvarry, Alex (1981- ) (Thesis advisor, Person)

Language of Materials

From the Collection:

Unless noted otherwise at the resource component level, the language of the collection materials is English.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use. Access is by appointment only.

Access to the collection is confined to the Monmouth University Library and is subject to patron policies approved by the Monmouth University Library.

Collection holdings may not be borrowed through interlibrary loan.

Research appointments are scheduled by the Monmouth University Library Archives Collections Manager (723-923-4526). A minimum of three days advance notice is required to arrange a research appointment for access to the collection.

Patrons must complete a Researcher Registration Form and provide appropriate identification to gain access to the collection holdings. Copies of these documents will be kept on file at the Monmouth University Library.

Extent

1 Items (print book) : 70 pages ; 8.5 x 11.0 inches (28 cm).

Additional Description

Introduction (excerpt)

My manuscript work is a draft of the first four chapters (or "scenes") of a novel called Terror, Avant-garde. In these scenes, Thérèse Genevieve Alarie, a 65-year old former Off-Off Broadway actor, leaves her apartment for the first time in three years to attend a playwrighting workshop at a small community theatre in Passaic. Her intention is to reunite with the playwright Darrell Hawke (who she believes wrote a life-changing play for and about her called Terror) and ask him to write another play inspired by her face before she dies. Thérèse is a reliably unreliable narrator who operates under several specific beliefs, one of which is that her face is cursed and exercises a dark and negative power over anyone who looks upon it. In the chapters of this draft, I have put a considerable amount of focus on "setting the stage" (pun intended). I introduce a few of the primary settings for the novel, major characters, and some of Thérèse's history. Going forward with this novel, I intend to move through time to explore chapters in Thérèse's past as she attempts to write her own Terror and "rewrite" her life. Parallelly, I also want to follw the present and Thérèse's relatinships with the characters in Darrell's playwrighting workshop.

As of now, I consider Terror, Avant-garde to fall into the category of literary fiction, with an intentional hybridity between prose and drama, which I believe will grow even more prominent as I continue to work on the novel.