Soft Serve: A Collection of Stories by © Allison Graves A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Masters of Arts/Memorial University/Department of English Memorial University of Newfoundland
October, 2017 St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador ABSTRACT
In Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, on Tinder and on the highway, standing on the edge of the CN tower and the top of Signal Hill, this collection of short stories questions how people navigate the places that ultimately make them feel lost. Exploring the often strange confusion and boredom that seeps into the everyday of modern life, this book negotiates this affective dualism by weaving subverted existentialism into casual speech. In this collection, I explore the realm of superficial acquaintance between person and place that plays contrast to moments of sincerity laid bare. Within and around such quotidian spaces, I ask: What is the significance of the attendant feelings? Where do those feelings direct us? Do they teach us something? Do they have the capacity to make us think differently? In this book, I comment on how these landscapes can reflect both the banality and intensity that so often marks our lives.