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To Sleep, To Dream - Creating diverse representations of depression in speculative fiction for emerging adults4.42 MB
Thesis Embargoed Access, Embargo ends: 20-Sep-2031
Dissertation
To Sleep, To Dream: Creating diverse representations of depression in speculative fiction for emerging adults
University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Doctor of Creative Arts, University of the Sunshine Coast
2018
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25907/00420
Abstract
This Doctorate of Creative Arts research examines how speculative fiction written explicitly for an emerging adult audience can represent the personal and diverse nature of depression, a contemporary issue of special significance to this audience, as suicide is the leading cause of death in Australians aged 15-24 (Black Dog Institute 2016: 4). This research is embodied in an original creative artefact, To Sleep, To Dream, a speculative fiction novel that emulates genre conventions such as a dystopian future setting, defamiliarisation, a rebellious heroine, and extrapolations on current technology, to represent depression as a multi-faceted illness that affects individuals in a diversity of ways. The accompanying exegesis explores narrative exemplars including The Hunger Games (Collins 2011), Divergent (Roth 2011), Matched (Condie 2010) and Delirium (Oliver 2011), to understand why speculative fiction conventions may appeal to emerging adults, and how a selection of these may be utilised to reframe understandings of depression among 18-30-year-olds. By exploring the interplay between textual analysis, keeping a practitioner's journal and engaging in creative praxis, the exegesis also documents the practice-led outcomes of writing To Sleep, To Dream, constituting how the research project contributes new knowledge to the field.
Details
- Title
- To Sleep, To Dream: Creating diverse representations of depression in speculative fiction for emerging adults
- Authors
- Emily Larkin
- Contributors
- Ross Watkins (Supervisor)
- Awarding institution
- University of the Sunshine Coast
- Degree awarded
- Doctor of Creative Arts
- Publisher
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- DOI
- 10.25907/00420
- Copyright note
- This thesis is restricted until 24 September 2031. For access to the full-text thesis, please contact author: ehlarkinwriter@outlook.com
- Organisation Unit
- School of Business and Creative Industries; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Creative Industries - Legacy
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451379702621
- Output Type
- Dissertation
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