Date of Award
5-1-2016
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Jordan, Judy
Abstract
Collection of poems, ranging from surreal third-person narratives to personal lyrics, that attempts to describe and, ultimately, combat, what Lukács termed “transcendental homelessness” – that is, the modern dilemma of having, finally, nowhere to go and no way to get there. By exploring the lives of soldiers and expatriates, I attempt to reveal the deep loneliness that winds its way through a superficially connected world. The effects of such superficiality manifest themselves, for the most part, as self-destructive habits and suicidal tendencies. At its conclusion, the collection moves towards some kind of solution to these issues: namely, a more conscious, effortful use of language as a means of connection. If, as one of my epigraphs states, “there is no belonging in a borrowed world,” there can yet be hope, scant and shabby as it may be.
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