DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/3ADW-N682
Defense Date
2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
David Wojahn
Abstract
Divided into four sections, the poems of Signaletics concern what is measurable and what is not measurable, the counted and the perceived. Using language from literature, religious texts, and outdated science manuals, especially Alphonse Bertillon’s late 19th-century criminal identification manual titled Signaletic Instructions including the theory and practice of Anthropometrical Identification, alongside autobiography, the poems reckon with identity, political responsibility, and empathy. Several sequences appear within the manuscript, including “Sublimation” and “Latent Print,” and the poems, as a whole, attempt a wide range of styles, balancing experimentation with form, narrative with fragmentation. As of the date of submission, twenty-four of the thirty-one poems have been published in nationally and internationally distributed literary journals, including AGNI, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-11-2012