THE WEEK is a collection of short stories. These stories engage the politicized (if not overly political) question of what it means to be human and to be in relation to other humans in the world. Some of the stories are quite compressed; I attempt to create effects in these pieces through subtraction, ellipsis, parataxis, and surprise. Other stories are more sustained, producing voices that address the reader directly or voices that follow the involutions of a thought, dwelling on minute details of consciousness; these pieces play with conventional short story elements (character, plot, rising action, falling action, etc.), although they often “fizzle” or turn sharply to unsettle reader expectation. I have found that it is very difficult to be human. That being human is a problem is both the premise and the conclusion of this book.
","abstract_html":"<p><em>THE WEEK</em> is a collection of short stories. These stories engage the politicized (if not overly political) question of what it means to be human and to be in relation to other humans in the world. Some of the stories are quite compressed; I attempt to create effects in these pieces through subtraction, ellipsis, parataxis, and surprise. Other stories are more sustained, producing voices that address the reader directly or voices that follow the involutions of a thought, dwelling on minute details of consciousness; these pieces play with conventional short story elements (character, plot, rising action, falling action, etc.), although they often “fizzle” or turn sharply to unsettle reader expectation. I have found that it is very difficult to be human. That being human is a problem is both the premise and the conclusion of this book.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ruocco, Joanna"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Brian Kiteley"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-11-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-11-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:01:25Z","subjects":["Creative writing","Fiction","Arts and Humanities"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. This work may only be accessed by members of the University of Denver community. The work is provided by permission of the author for individual research purposes only and may not be further copied or distributed. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
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"],"dc:subject":["Creative writing","Fiction","Arts and Humanities"],"dc:title":["The Week"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:01:25Z"}