AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

The Hound at the End of the Road is a collection of fictional stories that examines loneliness, isolation, and loss through a lens that is by turns magical and horrific. The stylistic choices in these stories are magic and lyricism, used to amplify the powerful imaginations of their characters to present a world that is as familiar as it is unfamiliar. A father deals with his teenage daughter's transformation into a beast; two children get lost in the woods on a vital winter hunt; and a woman is willing to endure anything to keep her late-in-life pregnancy. The stories choices in this thesis are meant to make the wonderful out of the ordinary. They illuminate the strange to remind us that being human means being fallible, and that being human is often mystifying and rewarding. Advisors/Committee Members: Mellen, Kyle (committee).