Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2006

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Art Smith

Committee Members

Marilyn Kallet, Heather Hirschfeld

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to create a collection of poetry that examines the self as a muted element in foreign environments. When placed in a foreign culture, our roles as observers are enhanced due to our limited inclusion within the perceptual frame of references of the cultures and people we observe. Ultimately, the foreigner becomes a parallel sub-system of the dominant foreign culture until such time that he or she makes a direct intrusion into that culture. This level of mutability allows the observer access to cultural elements and interactions inaccessible from within the cultural identity.

The principle extends well beyond the role of observers in foreign environments. Observers are also placed into alienated relationships with the immediate environment. Despite the ability of medical and celestial sciences to observe the worlds within and beyond our immediate sphere of experience, human beings rarely interact with the cellular and celestial levels of reality on a sensory level. Furthermore, the poet is perpetually muted from the inner workings of the subjective self. Our imaginations create worlds that enter the neural programming of our brains and exist in parallel as junction points in the constantly changing electro-chemical map of our cognition.

Drawing from experiences in international travel, alienating silence, childhood fears, and the relationships of people with the galaxy and cellular functions, this poetry attempts to illustrate the connections between the self and the universe beyond human experience using the poetry of Jack Gilbert, Ruth Stone, Stan Rice, James Wright, and Yusef Komunyakaa as models.

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