The Swimming Pool

Abstract

The dissertation titled The Swimming Pool is a novellete that aims to tell a fictionalized story of a family across four generations battling with addiction and alcoholism. The family experiences are told from the narrative viewpoint of an unborn child of the latest generation who has the ability to traverse parts of the family"s history. The story relies heavily on personal experiences and it is an attempt to come to terms with the troubles of the family due to alcohol abuse. The dissertation aims to explore the question of balancing the personal experience and how it is curated by the author to provide a narrative for a wider audience. The dissertation also aims to explore the question of authorial intent versus reader perception.