The Untellable Story / Twice Upon a Time: Starting Over After the Apocalypse

Abstract

The Untellable Story - Several centuries after a double catastrophe brought about by human attempts to intervene in both the effects of climate change and the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, the human race is left largely without the ability to tell stories. Annabelle, born a Storyteller into a world hostile to her ability, is forced to hide her identity to protect her life. When her secret is discovered, she must flee the village of her birth and enter a shadow world in which the few others who share her power plot to dominate. -- Twice Upon a Time: Starting Over After the Apocalypse - This exegesis explores the subgenre of YA postapocalyptic fiction, discussing the way in which the apocalypse has been adopted as a metaphorical rendering of the turmoil of adolescence and as a “clean slate” upon which new stories can be written. Moving to an examination of the role of storytelling in building and maintaining cultures, societies and individuals, the exegesis interweaves critical thinking on story from narratology, psychology and other fields with an analysis of how concepts of storytelling are reflected through the creative component of this thesis.