This dissertation is composed of a series of three short stories which are all set within the same landscape. Each story in some way explores the relationship between the land and its inhabitants, both human and non-human, encompassing the processes of change the landscape is forced to undergo as a result of human interference.
Part One, Hunting, follows a young girl who, after witnessing the shooting of some deer in the woods, is so horrified by the violence of her own species that she runs away with an injured doe. Part Two, Changing, is about the disastrous consequences of a love affair between the personified figures of the seasons of Autumn and Summer. Part Three, Returning, follows a young woman with amnesia, who must trace her own memories back through the landscape of her childhood home to discover the reason she has come back after so many years of living away in the city.
Following these stories is an essay about the significance of place in literature. Focusing on the novels Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Weathering by Lucy Wood, the essay explores the relationship between fictional characters and landscape. As well as this, the essay will investigate the various ways in which language can be challenged to evoke a sentient and powerful sense of place, rather than simply ascribe a place to the backdrop of a story.