Davis, Katherine AnnThe following stories, letters, and novel excerpt explore the impossibility of reconnecting to the past. They examine moments in their characters' lives when the desire for such a connection is quite strong--it means wanting to have potential, wanting to belong somewhere, and wanting not to be lonely. Questions of truth in memory and perception also emerge. I explore this desire by situating characters at different points in their lives, so they are looking back across varying distances: for the narrator in "Reasons I Got Up This Morning, going back means a return to the day before, and in "Gustav Has Glancing Blow" it means a return to childhood. The boy in "My Collector" wants entire histories preserved so that they are alive forever and he can be part of them.en-USThesisFine Artschronic paincollectorDMVEdmund BurkeevasionMr. Whippy