DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/FZ9P-3338
Defense Date
2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Kathleen Graber
Second Advisor
David Wojahn
Third Advisor
Kathleen Alford
Abstract
I often found it was really hard for me to take time to write with the constant surroundings of illness, worry, and death. And the pandemic made me shift focus in poems often, I found that I felt compelled to write about my anxiety even if it wasn't astute or grounded. However, when I found the documentary on the Nutshells and started researching them, something shifted with how I wanted to approach my writing. The Nutshells were helpful to find because they gave a definite reality, they showed me a reality that could be questioned and dissected, but the body was already dead, the death has already happened. I think this metaphor of the reality being ever present but constantly in flux allowed me to kind of refocus my writing to delve deeper into the metaphysical remaking of death, and how the body dies in different ways but they are all equally likely. These Nutshells spurred a project that I am continuing to work on, and although the semester was very quick, and oddly very slow at the same time, I am thankful that I found a subject matter that leaves our immediate reality to focus on a more miniscule one.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
4-25-2021