DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/Z7YE-XZ28
Defense Date
2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
David Wojahn
Second Advisor
Gregory Donovan
Third Advisor
Kathleen Graber
Abstract
In this poetry collection, I explore the intersections between reality, dream, myth, and memory. It begins with “The Accident,” a narrative poem recounting the event that throws the speaker into an anxiety-filled dream-world. The speaker is haunted by the image of the deer that killed her father, an image that takes several forms and personae throughout, but occurs mostly in the fallible landscape of dream. The tones of these dreams penetrate the speaker’s waking life, and she finds herself more and more incapable of separating the dreams from reality. The speaker begins to search elsewhere for answers—divination, history, art, myth—but the landscapes are always off, always de-familiarized by dream. In the conclusion of the manuscript, the speaker loses all sense of self and becomes the symbol with which she has been so obsessed, unable to wake from the final dream.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-5-2015