Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nadia Farmer

Date

2024

Document Type

Thesis (Access Restricted)

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

English

Committee Chair

Eric Schlich

Committee Member

Courtney Santo

Committee Member

Shelby Crosby

Abstract

“The Harrison House” is a religious horror novel that explores the effects of colonization through a Black Christian family that is in denial of their roots, their ancestry, and their severed connection with the motherland in the city of Greenville, Alabama. In the height of the civil rights movement, the Harrisons have been invincible to the horrors of racism because of Hoodoo: an African American spiritual system that prevented them from dying wrongful deaths at the hands of their oppressors. The family matriarch, Gwendolyn, upholds this practice. Now that she is deceased, her daughter Michelle—who believes that Hoodoo has no place in the lord’s house—must decide whether she will carry the spiritual torch or abandon Hoodoo entirely. A boo-hag now haunts Michelle’s home after the death of her mother. A skinless entity that likes to wear the skin of others while shapeshifting, snatching voices, and climbing the walls of the Harrison home…eager to sit on a chest at night. With rumors of a family curse spreading about a mysterious ancestor from the early 1800s, Michelle, her husband King, and three children: Gene, Teddy, and Ruby, must fully immerse themselves in a practice they’ve been demonizing to uncover why this boo-hag has made its presence known.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.”

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

No Access

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