Date of Award
5-6-2024
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Advisor
Josh Russell
Second Advisor
Dr. John Holman
Third Advisor
Dr. Beth Gylys
Abstract
The Vanished Worlds of Konstantine Baker is novel that mixes elements of speculative, literary, and Southern fiction. The novel’s protagonist, K, learns when he is fifteen that his life exists in a time loop. When he reaches the age of sixty-five, he will be brought back to the summer he is fifteen where the older and younger K meet. This discovery as well as meeting his older self, has a dramatic impact on K as does reading the memoirs of the previous Ks, which reveal a series of different lives experienced. When the older K decides to alter the course of events in K’s timeline, the ripple effects end up traumatic, and lead K to the conviction that he should try to live a life that does not impact or influence what he deems as the normal course of events. When he meets another person like him, a woman named Silvina, this idea comes into conflict with her belief that what they have been given is a gift, one that should be used to make the world better. This conflict between ideals is at the heart of the novel, and both. K and Silvina’s adherence to their own beliefs create problems for both of them. By the novel’s final section, which takes place on the eve of K’s return to the summer he turns fifteen, K must confront the consequences of his decisions and determine whether the life he has lived was the right choice or not.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/36954133
Recommended Citation
Jordan, James, "The Vanished Worlds of Konstantine Baker: A Novel." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/36954133
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