Reclaiming Shadows

Date of Award

6-2024

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

English

First Advisor

Richard Katrovas, MFA

Second Advisor

Todd Kuchta, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Julie Meredith Davis, Ph.D., LP

Abstract

If misanthrope Maxine Richardson doesn’t stop getting high, her parents aren’t paying her college tuition anymore. For almost eight years, Max’s parents have been covering rehab costs and dropping her off at AA meetings, but when Max is involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility after a meth binge, even their seemingly unending generosity meets its limit. Max’s parents will pay for one last round of treatment, at the best place they can find, but if she fails again—Max’s dream of becoming a professional graphic artist will be cut like the string of a helium balloon.

Risen Moon is a drug-free retreat center in the remote mountains of Colorado with the highest success rate of addiction recovery in the country—according to its website. At 10,000 feet above sea level, Risen Moon residents surrender their cell phones, receive weekly oral drug tests, and bunk with roommates in semi-permanent tents. Risen Moon’s methods for guiding drug-addicted people through the fog involve manual labor, meditation, and group therapy sessions. Unfortunately for Max, as helpful as the center’s programming might be, not everyone on the mountain is there to get better.

Reclaiming Shadows is a work of autofiction, a term that originated in France, but that has captured the American literary world’s attention especially in the last ten years. Though scholars define autofiction differently, it is generally described as a genre of writing that blends autobiography and fiction. Other terms for this genre include autobiographical novel, I-novel, or non-fiction novel. Though some might argue that all fiction is autofiction, since all fiction authors pull from lived experience, the blurring of lines between the author’s and the protagonist’s lived experiences position Reclaiming Shadows firmly as contemporary autofiction. Canonized American works of literature that may also be considered autofiction include Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Truman Copote’s In Cold Blood, Tao Lin’s Taipei, and Kerouac’s On the Road.

Trauma, sexuality, and the female experience are frequent themes in autofictional novels, including Sheila Heti’s Motherhood, Jessie Greengrass’s Sight, and Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry. In Reclaiming Shadows, twenty-five-year-old Maxine carries the shame of her past choices like a sherpa up and down Risen Moon’s mountains. But even under an expansive Coloradoan sky, Max’s inner world is a suffocating hall of mirrors. As in many autofiction narratives, a close third person perspective invites the reader to see the world, not just through Max’s eyes, but through the lens of her troubled mind.

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