Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
5-2016
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
English
Major Professor
Michael Knight
Committee Members
Margaret Dean, Alisa Schoenbach, Mary Papke, Stephen Blackwell
Abstract
Semblance—or parody—is, of course, the operative word when considering a text that strives to be subversive of both form (the “anti-realism” of minor literature) and social function. Regarding the latter, as stated before, my goal in the text is the reverse of the traditional moral fable’s: implanting a desire in readers to experience firsthand the world of risk as a means to live in a more vital way, outside the text, whether through gambling or another form of chance-taking. Uncertainty is troubling, unsettling, but it is also mysterious and enlivening—this is what gamblers, acolytes at the altar of luck, understand in the final analysis.
Recommended Citation
Shum, Michael Shou-Yung, "Queen of Spades. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2016.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/3665