Date of Award
Spring 5-2021
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School
Humanities
Committee Chair
Olivia Clare
Committee Chair School
Humanities
Committee Member 2
Joshua Bernstein
Committee Member 2 School
Humanities
Committee Member 3
Eric Tribunella
Committee Member 3 School
Humanities
Committee Member 4
Emily Stanback
Committee Member 4 School
Humanities
Abstract
This novella centers on Claudia Schatz, a traumatized fourteen-year-old growing up in Baltimore, which is also known as the “Charm City,” in the early 1990s. The title’s irony refers both to the city itself and the state of being a misfit teenage girl, with its perpetual charmlessness, both outward and inward. What Claudia may lack in charm, however, she makes up for in resilience, and throughout the course of this narrative, she manages to remand some of her shattered childhood to the past, and forge ahead to a perfectly imperfect future.
Recommended Citation
Keffer, Karla, "Charm City" (2021). Dissertations. 1895.
https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/1895