MLitt Dissertation

Exploring the prevalence of the absent or dead mother trope in Urban Fantasy, with accompanying short story, The Book of Matthew.

Gone But Not Forgotten is a masters dissertation, and includes the short story, and exegetical component. The exegesis is a study furthering the research of Sefan Ekman into the Seen and Unseen Worlds of Urban Fantasy.

The Book of Matthew is an Urban Fantasy story that subverts the absent
or dead mother trope popular in the genre. The protagonist, an immortal
being longing for death, is forced to live through the same events over
hundreds of lifetimes.

The protagonists view of the world is framed through the bay windows of his lounge room, until he is lured from the comfort of his house by a small boy’s grief. In the accompanying exegesis I explore the absent or dead mother trope through a content analysis of a representative sample of texts from the Urban Fantasy genre, so as to respond to the research question:

How prevalent is the absent or dead mother trope in the Urban Fantasy genre?


I explore how the absent or dead mother trope has been viewed historically and apply this in an effort to explain the prevalence of the trope in the Urban Fantasy genre. In addition, I briefly discuss the influence the research had on the artefact creation process.