This essay explores the realms of special places, the literary genre of fantasy, narrative, and comics. These topics are traversed alongside subjects of adolescence and the creation of stories for middle-grade readers. Framed with personal stories, as well as peaks into my process, I investigate these subjects through the lens of my own life and work, specifically my thesis project, a comic for middle-grade readers titled Beyond the Castle Walls. Beginning with adolescence in association with special places, I consider the work of developmental psychologists David Sobel and Edith Cobb as they pin-point the role of secret forts, nature, and imagination in middle childhood development. Moving into storytelling, narrative is defined through the perspective of Greek philosopher Aristotle alongside American cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud, examining how comics and cartooning formally function as pathways for narrative content. Looking to fantasy as narrative tool, I explore essays on the subject by English writer and philologist J.R.R. Tolkien and American Poet W.H. Auden, defining fantasy and its role within storytelling. The essay concludes in defining a method of storytelling that aims to aid in the personal development of its audience by using real life experiences and places, along with narrative, to build a secondary world. This method brings together the topics of place, fantasy, narrative, comics, and developmental psychology in creating stories for young readers, allowing the story to become a technology for simulating a transitional experience in life.
","abstract_html":"<p>This essay explores the realms of special places, the literary genre of fantasy, narrative, and comics. These topics are traversed alongside subjects of adolescence and the creation of stories for middle-grade readers. Framed with personal stories, as well as peaks into my process, I investigate these subjects through the lens of my own life and work, specifically my thesis project, a comic for middle-grade readers titled <em>Beyond the Castle Walls</em>. Beginning with adolescence in association with special places, I consider the work of developmental psychologists David Sobel and Edith Cobb as they pin-point the role of secret forts, nature, and imagination in middle childhood development. Moving into storytelling, narrative is defined through the perspective of Greek philosopher Aristotle alongside American cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud, examining how comics and cartooning formally function as pathways for narrative content. Looking to fantasy as narrative tool, I explore essays on the subject by English writer and philologist J.R.R. Tolkien and American Poet W.H. Auden, defining fantasy and its role within storytelling. The essay concludes in defining a method of storytelling that aims to aid in the personal development of its audience by using real life experiences and places, along with narrative, to build a secondary world. This method brings together the topics of place, fantasy, narrative, comics, and developmental psychology in creating stories for young readers, allowing the story to become a technology for simulating a transitional experience in life.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Cherepak, Cydney"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Illustration & Visual Culture","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Graduate School of Art","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-05-20T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2022-05-20T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:12:17Z","subjects":["Illustration","comics","fantasy","place","adolescence","childhood development","nature","imagination","psychology","narrative","Art and Design","Art Practice","Book and Paper","Children's and Young Adult Literature","Developmental Psychology","Fiction"],"languages":["English"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/j6bz-av61"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.7936/j6bz-av61","href":"https://doi.org/10.7936/j6bz-av61","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mfa_illustration/5","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Cherepak, Cydney"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2022-05-18T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Graduate School of Art"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Illustration & Visual Culture"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Illustration","comics","fantasy","place","adolescence","childhood development","nature","imagination","psychology","narrative","Art and Design","Art Practice","Book and Paper","Children's and Young Adult Literature","Developmental Psychology","Fiction"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mfa_illustration/5"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/j6bz-av61"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This essay explores the realms of special places, the literary genre of fantasy, narrative, and comics. These topics are traversed alongside subjects of adolescence and the creation of stories for middle-grade readers. Framed with personal stories, as well as peaks into my process, I investigate these subjects through the lens of my own life and work, specifically my thesis project, a comic for middle-grade readers titled Beyond the Castle Walls. Beginning with adolescence in association with special places, I consider the work of developmental psychologists David Sobel and Edith Cobb as they pin-point the role of secret forts, nature, and imagination in middle childhood development. Moving into storytelling, narrative is defined through the perspective of Greek philosopher Aristotle alongside American cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud, examining how comics and cartooning formally function as pathways for narrative content. Looking to fantasy as narrative tool, I explore essays on the subject by English writer and philologist J.R.R. Tolkien and American Poet W.H. Auden, defining fantasy and its role within storytelling. The essay concludes in defining a method of storytelling that aims to aid in the personal development of its audience by using real life experiences and places, along with narrative, to build a secondary world. This method brings together the topics of place, fantasy, narrative, comics, and developmental psychology in creating stories for young readers, allowing the story to become a technology for simulating a transitional experience in life.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Perfect Escape: Fantasy, Place and Narrative in Adolescence"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Cherepak, Cydney"],"dc:date.available":["2022-05-18T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This essay explores the realms of special places, the literary genre of fantasy, narrative, and comics. These topics are traversed alongside subjects of adolescence and the creation of stories for middle-grade readers. Framed with personal stories, as well as peaks into my process, I investigate these subjects through the lens of my own life and work, specifically my thesis project, a comic for middle-grade readers titled Beyond the Castle Walls. Beginning with adolescence in association with special places, I consider the work of developmental psychologists David Sobel and Edith Cobb as they pin-point the role of secret forts, nature, and imagination in middle childhood development. Moving into storytelling, narrative is defined through the perspective of Greek philosopher Aristotle alongside American cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud, examining how comics and cartooning formally function as pathways for narrative content. Looking to fantasy as narrative tool, I explore essays on the subject by English writer and philologist J.R.R. Tolkien and American Poet W.H. Auden, defining fantasy and its role within storytelling. The essay concludes in defining a method of storytelling that aims to aid in the personal development of its audience by using real life experiences and places, along with narrative, to build a secondary world. This method brings together the topics of place, fantasy, narrative, comics, and developmental psychology in creating stories for young readers, allowing the story to become a technology for simulating a transitional experience in life.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mfa_illustration/5"],"dc:identifier.doi":["https://doi.org/10.7936/j6bz-av61"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:subject":["Illustration","comics","fantasy","place","adolescence","childhood development","nature","imagination","psychology","narrative","Art and Design","Art Practice","Book and Paper","Children's and Young Adult Literature","Developmental Psychology","Fiction"],"dc:title":["A Perfect Escape: Fantasy, Place and Narrative in Adolescence"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Graduate School of Art"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Illustration & Visual Culture"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:12:17Z"}