Abstract:
This thesis is a collection of three short stories and the
beginnings of a novel. A similar thread is woven through all the
stories: in the attempt to know spiritual truth, what it is to be a
woman, and to know themselves, the various protagonists precariously
oscillate between the seemingly conflicting wisdom of their known
community and mysterious outsiders. At times, the characters find
themselves drawn to different poles within their very communities. Two
of the stories, "The Magnitiseur," "Charm Course," and the novel with
the working title, Behind My Grandmother There is Darkness, are directly
set in the world of my upbringing, an insular Dutch immigrant community.
This community is rooted in the Reformed Protestant tradition, dating
back to John Calvin's 16th Century Geneva. The third story, "Foreign
Expert," although set in the alien environment of northeastern China,
touches on similar issues of isolation, focusing on an individual in an
unfamiliar environment who seeks her place and in some ways herself.
Stylistically, I admire Eudora Welty and Alice Munro and throughout the
writing of this thesis, I felt their presence as writing mentors. Welty
and Munro write with a rich sense of place and understand the effect of
landscape, in a broad sense, on the individual. Thus, this collection
is influenced by many sources: my rich, four-hundred year old heritage,
the story-telling methods of Welty and Munro, and of course, my own
imagination.
