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URI [dataset] UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Creative Writing Volume 1 of 1 Unspeakable Things: A Critical and Creative Exploration of the Limitations of Language and How We Can Navigate Them to Better Communicate Meaning by Thomas James Brown Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2019 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Creative Writing Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy UNSPEAKABLE THINGS: A CRITICAL AND CREATIVE EXPLORATION OF THE LIMITATIONS OF LANGUAGE AND HOW WE CAN NAVIGATE THEM TO BETTER COMMUNICATE MEANING Thomas James Brown Disturbing, haunting, mesmerising, surreal — the sentiment behind the words used by readers in response to Unspeakable Things calls up the collection’s sublime subject matter. Suggestive of the unutterable and the unknown respectively, the title of the collection speaks to this focus, which the fourteen narratives within evoke in order to transform complex contemporary issues such as social inequality, mental health, modern sexuality, and an endemic disregard for human life into affecting and accessible themes. Their use of the sublime achieves this by elevating the reader beyond thought and language at choice moments in each text, encouraging an emotional, spiritual, or philosophical response that serves to raise the reader’s awareness of — and engagement with — key themes. Herein lies the new knowledge the accompanying critical commentary contributes to the creative writing field, putting forward the means by which the discourse of the sublime can not only be appropriated to examine key issues in critical contexts but used as a literary device by the modern creative writer to articulate contemporary themes and issues otherwise challenged with being too complex, far-reaching, or inaccessible to communicate authentically in narrative form. The creative collection is itself a contribution of new knowledge to the field for the way in which it demonstrates this. Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... iii Table of Illustrations ..................................................................................................... v Academic Thesis: Declaration Of Authorship .................................................. vii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1 Unspeakable Things .................................................................................. 1 1.1 Prologue ........................................................................................ 1 1.2 ‘Tammy’s Flight’ ............................................................................ 2 1.3 ‘Catherine’ ..................................................................................... 7 1.4 ‘Imago Dreams’ ........................................................................... 20 1.5 ‘Tammy (2)’ ................................................................................. 21 1.6 ‘Winnie’ ....................................................................................... 40 1.7 ‘The Flowers’ ............................................................................... 43 1.8 ‘Eve’ ............................................................................................ 44 1.9 ‘Adam and Roach’ ........................................................................ 45 1.10 ‘Escape’ ..................................................................................... 133 1.11 ‘Sarah’ ....................................................................................... 134 1.12 ‘The Docks’ ............................................................................... 147 1.13 ‘Tammy (3)’ ............................................................................... 148 1.14 Epilogue .................................................................................... 169 Chapter 2 Critical Commentary .......................................................................... 171 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 171 2.2 Rhythm, Verse, and the Stories Between Stories: Invoking Ovid .. 175 2.3 Modern Cities, Social Media, and the Sublime Breakdown of the Self: Elevating the Twenty-First Century Reader .......................... 183 2.4 Terror, Tropes, and the Ritual: Genre as a Source of the Sublime 193 2.5 Lost for Words: Roland Barthes and the Sublime Problem ........... 200 2.6 Everything Changes, Nothing Perishes: Sublime Transformations in the Contemporary Tale .............................................................. 206 Chapter 3 Conclusion: Thesis, Antithesis, and the Synthesis of Meaning ................................................................................................... 213 iii Table of Contents Appendix A .................................................................................................................... 218 Appendix B .................................................................................................................... 221 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 223 iv Table of Illustrations Table of Illustrations Figure 1: Illustrations of insect anatomy, undated ....................................... 210 Figure 2: Illustrations of various arachnid species, undated ......................... 221 v Academic Thesis: Declaration Of Authorship Academic Thesis: Declaration Of Authorship I, THOMAS BROWN declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research. Unspeakable Things: A Critical and Creative Exploration of the Limitations of Language and How We Can Navigate Them to Better Communicate Meaning I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. Parts of this work have been published as: 1.1 Prologue, earlier version originally published as ‘Harvest House’ on Pen of the Damned, Damned Words 2 (Pen of the Damned, 2013) <https://penofthedamned.com/2013/06/01/damned-words-2/> [accessed 29 September 2017] 1.4 ‘Imago Dreams’, originally published as ‘Insomnia’ on Pen of the Damned, Damned Words 6 (Pen of the Damned, 2014) < https://penofthedamned.com/2014/03/11/damned-words-6/> [accessed 26 November 2018] 1.6 ‘Winnie’, earlier version originally published as ‘Lady Crocodile’ in Mirror, Mirror, ed. by Dorothy Davies (North Carolina: Thirteen Press, 2014) 1.7 ‘The Flowers’, earlier version originally published as ‘Pink Orchid’ on Pen of the Damned, Damned Echoes 3 (Pen of the Damned, 2016) vii Academic Thesis: Declaration Of Authorship <https://penofthedamned.com/2016/09/13/damned-echoes-3/> [accessed 29 September 2017] 1.8 ‘Eve’, published on Pen of the Damned, Damned Words 9 (Pen of the Damned, 2014) <https://penofthedamned.com/2014/09/23/damned-words- 9/> [accessed 29 September 2017] 1.10 ‘Escape’, originally published as ‘Half-Measure’ on Pen of the Damned, Damned Words 4 (Pen of the Damned, 2013) < https://penofthedamned.com/2013/10/22/damned-words-4/> [accessed 05 December, 2018] 1.11 ‘Sarah’, originally published as ‘It Lives In Us’ in Twisted Realities: Of Myth and Monstrosity, ed. by Gloria Bobrowicz (New York: Siren’s Call Publications, 2012) and At The Stroke of Thirteen (North Carolina: Thirteen Press, 2014). Earlier version previously submitted for MA Creative Writing module assignment, 2012. Course convenor Aamer Hussein. 1.12 ‘The Docks’, earlier version originally published as ‘RMS Valor’ on Pen of the Damned, Damned Echoes 2 (Pen of the Damned, 2016) < https://penofthedamned.com/2016/06/28/damned-echoes-2/> [accessed 05 December, 2018] 1.14 Epilogue, earlier version originally published as