Third Culture

Author:

Englert, Henry Ulysses

Area of Honors:

English

Degree:

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type:

Thesis

Thesis Supervisors:

Elizabeth Nicole Kadetsky, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Marcy Lynne North, Thesis Honors Advisor

Keywords:

autofiction
nonfiction
Third Culture
foreign relations
Anglo-American special relationship
England

Abstract:

Third Culture is a work of experimental autofiction that follows a manic, troubled, unnamed American student on a single day of his study abroad trip in London. Throughout this day, the student interacts with a diverse cast of characters whose differing nationalities, upbringings, and psychographics throw every social situation into a state of 21st century-globalist-whatever-have-you-confusion. Such confusion is especially troubling to the student, who undergoes an identity crisis of his own while trying to figure out where he stands with Rena, the Dutch-American Muscovite he has been seeing on-and-off over the years. On top of all this, he is trying and failing to write a research project, which he feels “too removed from a shared reality” to finish. As the story progresses, the reader will hopefully experience a whole other social world, removed from any easy national or cultural signifiers or character types to which they can relate. The student and the other characters are deep within in a ‘third culture’ - where no person has a true home, no character a set identity, and no two individuals a shared language. The thrust of this story is the process figuring out a way in which to navigate this rough social terrain while retaining respect and love for those around you.