The novel in draft, “The Collective,” is the result of an eight-month effort, which began in one of Professor Bruce Machart’s writing workshops at Bridgewater State University, spring of 2016. It sat for a couple of years of minor edits and revisions while I waited for the opportunity to once again work with Professor Machart. What follows is the first of four sections of the novel, book one of four if you will. The first eighty pages of a significantly longer work, this thesis lays the footstones of a dramatic defamiliarization of the Santa Claus myth. I’ve turned everything about the myth around, made it more realistic in terms of working-class environs, attitudes. I’ve brought it into the 21st century, and the years haven’t been kind. The Santa of “The Collective” has outgrown children’s stories.
","abstract_html":"<p>The novel in draft, “The Collective,” is the result of an eight-month effort, which began in one of Professor Bruce Machart’s writing workshops at Bridgewater State University, spring of 2016. It sat for a couple of years of minor edits and revisions while I waited for the opportunity to once again work with Professor Machart. What follows is the first of four sections of the novel, book one of four if you will. The first eighty pages of a significantly longer work, this thesis lays the footstones of a dramatic defamiliarization of the Santa Claus myth. I’ve turned everything about the myth around, made it more realistic in terms of working-class environs, attitudes. I’ve brought it into the 21st century, and the years haven’t been kind. The Santa of “The Collective” has outgrown children’s stories.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Davidson, Jeffrey S."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Professor Bruce Machart, Chair
Dr. Sarah Fawn Montgomery, Member
Professor John Mulrooney, Member
"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2019-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:22:00Z","subjects":["Creative Writing","Fiction","Santa Claus","children's stories","Elves","Nicklaus"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://vc.bridgew.edu/theses/68","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Professor Bruce Machart, Chair
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"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Collective (A Novel): Part One"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Professor Bruce Machart, Chair
Dr. Sarah Fawn Montgomery, Member
Professor John Mulrooney, Member
"],"dc:creator":["Davidson, Jeffrey S."],"dc:date.available":["2019-10-28T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The novel in draft, “The Collective,” is the result of an eight-month effort, which began in one of Professor Bruce Machart’s writing workshops at Bridgewater State University, spring of 2016. It sat for a couple of years of minor edits and revisions while I waited for the opportunity to once again work with Professor Machart. What follows is the first of four sections of the novel, book one of four if you will. The first eighty pages of a significantly longer work, this thesis lays the footstones of a dramatic defamiliarization of the Santa Claus myth. I’ve turned everything about the myth around, made it more realistic in terms of working-class environs, attitudes. I’ve brought it into the 21st century, and the years haven’t been kind. The Santa of “The Collective” has outgrown children’s stories.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://vc.bridgew.edu/theses/68"],"dc:subject":["Creative Writing","Fiction","Santa Claus","children's stories","Elves","Nicklaus"],"dc:title":["The Collective (A Novel): Part One"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:22:00Z"}