Migratory patterns : stories

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Migratory patterns is a collection of short stories that examine the experience of Americans traveling abroad. The stories are set in a wide range of settings: Guatemala, Ireland, France, Italy, Egypt, Belize, Mexico and Spain. The stories consider the role of internationalism in American identity in the post-9/11 world. The stories typically engage the problem of travel through a domestic lens and consider the ways interpersonal relationships, particularly relationships within families, alter and inform the construction of the self, and how the pressures of travel inform this dynamic. The collection includes an introduction that considers the role of travel in postmodern literature and the ways travel impacts the contemporary writer's use of form and structure in the making of short stories. This dynamic is considered in light of writers such as Henry James and Deborah Eisenberg, and the introduction suggests how travel informs the contemporary short story.