Date of Completion

2021

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

English

Thesis Type

Honors College, College of Arts and Science Honors

First Advisor

Stephen Cramer

Second Advisor

John Gennari

Third Advisor

Antonello Borra

Keywords

horror fiction, creative writing, Lovecraftian horror, patriarchy, psychology, prose

Abstract

This project is primarily composed of a historical fiction piece. It follows an unnamed woman as she attempts to escape fascist Italy by stowing away aboard an ocean liner to America, where a man from her village is waiting for his betrothed. As the story unfolds, she is tormented by the first mate of the ship who takes an interest in her, fascist blackshirts, and hallucinations and delusions stemming from her past traumatic experience of being committed to an asylum in Italy. The story is followed by an afterword which provides an analysis of the historical background of the piece, including the women's asylums used by the Italian regime to enforce a program of patriarchy and eugenics, as well as a discussion of its literary influence, namely the "weird fiction" of H.P. Lovecraft and how its generic conventions can be applied to anti-fascist literature.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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