“Civilizations without Boats”: Stories

• Main Author: Hubbs, Travis
• Other Authors: Tait, John, 1969-
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2011
• Subjects: Short stories; creative writing; literary fiction
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc84222/

This collection consists of a critical preface and nine short stories. Extrapolating from the work and legacy of Michel Foucault, the preface theorizes a genre of “heterotopian fiction” as constitutive of a fundamentally ethical approach to narrative creativity, distinguishing its functional and methodological characteristics from works that privilege aesthetic, thematic, or technical artistry. The stories explore spaces of madness, alterity, incomprehensibility, and liminal experience. Collection includes the stories “Mexico,” “Civilizations without Boats,” The Widow’s Mother,” “Guys Like Us,” “Everything You’d Hoped It Would Be,” “A Concerned Friend,” “Crisis Hotline,” “Coast to Coast,” and “The Ghosts of Rich Men.”