The Panther

Abstract

The Panther is a work of short fiction set in the Florida Everglades that explores the tale of a family-run hotel and casino capitalizing off a tragedy that occurred within the establishment years prior by transforming it into a spectacle for the sake of entertainment. Serving as a demonstration of how the lines can easily become blurred between the real and simulation, the work also embeds research surrounding the history of Florida into the text. This thesis contains the fictional work and an accompanying poetics statement regarding the composition of the work and the research that went into its creation.