Title
ACACIA, a Book of Wonders, or the Meditations of Fontaine Caldwell, Containing the True Account of Her Captivity as Written in Her Little Books
Date of Award
6-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Organizational Unit
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, English and Literary Arts
First Advisor
Selah Saterstrom
Second Advisor
Joanna Howard
Third Advisor
Clark Davis
Fourth Advisor
Frederique Chevillot
Keywords
Creative writing, Screenwriting
Abstract
ACACIA is a gothic-inflected surrealist captivity narrative modeled after storied historical accounts such as Mary Rowlandson's Sovereignty and the Goodness of God, Charles I’s Eikon Basilike, and the prison narratives of the French Quietist mystic, Jeanne Guyon. Told by Fontaine Caldwell, the matriarchal prophetess of an East Texas isolationist cult, ACACIA draws on Rudolf Otto's theological concept of “mysterium tremendum et fascinans”—the presence of dread tempered with Heavenly allure when confronted with numinous spiritual events—to populate the spiritual wonders of Fontaine’s diaries—her “little books.” As a captivity account, ACACIA calls on rhetorical dynamics essential to that genre to pose questions about divine goodness, the veracity of the teller, and the psychology undergirding adherence to power, religious or otherwise.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.
Rights Holder
Vincent James
Provenance
Received from author
File Format
application/pdf
Language
en
File Size
325 pgs
Recommended Citation
James, Vincent, "ACACIA, a Book of Wonders, or the Meditations of Fontaine Caldwell, Containing the True Account of Her Captivity as Written in Her Little Books" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2186.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2186
Copyright date
2020
Discipline
Creative writing