DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/2XT9-1M57
Defense Date
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Kathleen Graber
Second Advisor
David Wojahn
Third Advisor
Sonja Livingston
Fourth Advisor
Dr. David Golumbia
Abstract
Stubborn Work is a collection of poems about definition and uncertainty. The poems herein probe the concept of a continuous self in the face of an ever-shifting landscape. In this work foundations of self-identity, family identity, gender, home, place, and (at the hands of a psychological disorder) even reality itself are shaken and called into question. Over and over, in lieu of every new shift, the poet attempts to re-write themselves—to ask, continually, what it means to move forward after each new shift, and remark on how the past always follows closely behind, directing the course. Investigating the relationships between self and space, self and personal history, self and desire, Stubborn Work illuminates the ways in which a “sense of self” is always changing, moment by precarious moment, and that it is harrowing, actualizing, and inevitable that we are to be forever in search of it.
Rights
© James A Bolleana-Clark
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-2-2019