Red Water

The creative portion of this dissertation, Red Water, is a cross-generational novel set in San Francisco. After an earthquake strikes, three female narrators are connected across time through their experiences with trauma and loss and the excavation of heirlooms and histories as they try to piece their lives back together. This thesis is a study of trauma, both experienced by the narrators and the place itself. The research component explores the mapping of trauma through displacement and migration, characterising the city as a traumatised place, and also examines the evolving significance of objects, specifically heirlooms, as they pass between character, time, and place