Date of Award
12-2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.F.A.
Degree Program
Creative Writing
Department
English
Major Professor
M.O. Walsh
Second Advisor
Joanna Leake
Third Advisor
Janet Barnwell Smith
Abstract
This collection of speculative short stories explores how compassion might survive when institutional support systems have failed, framing the narratives of ordinary people against social, moral, and ecological decay. The inherent unreliability of perception as a subjective process of construction and the dangerous heuristic of using myth as a coping mechanism challenge survivors’ efforts to find authentic ways of making, and maintaining, human connections. What emerges is an empathy test for the end of the world.
Recommended Citation
McPherson, Laura, "Trypophrenia: Uncanny Stories from the End of the World" (2025). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 3323.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/3323
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.