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Ranging in subject from a Tuareg festival outside Timbuktu to the 1975 "Battle of the Sexes" race at Belmont track to a Mississippi classroom in the Delta flood plains, the poems in The Body Snatcher's Complaint explore the blurring of self hood, a feeling of foreignness within one's own physical

Ranging in subject from a Tuareg festival outside Timbuktu to the 1975 "Battle of the Sexes" race at Belmont track to a Mississippi classroom in the Delta flood plains, the poems in The Body Snatcher's Complaint explore the blurring of self hood, a feeling of foreignness within one's own physical experience of the world, in the most intimate and global contexts.
ContributorsMurray, Catherine (Author) / Hogue, Cynthia (Thesis advisor) / Ball, Sally (Committee member) / Hummer, Terry (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
This dissertation addresses the representation of women in the poetry of the Irish poet Thomas Kinsella. Using a variety of theoretical approaches, including historical criticism, French feminist theory and Jungian psychoanalytical theory, I argue that although women are an integral part of Kinsella's ongoing aesthetic project of self-interrogation, their role

This dissertation addresses the representation of women in the poetry of the Irish poet Thomas Kinsella. Using a variety of theoretical approaches, including historical criticism, French feminist theory and Jungian psychoanalytical theory, I argue that although women are an integral part of Kinsella's ongoing aesthetic project of self-interrogation, their role in his poetry is deeply problematic from a feminist perspective. For purposes of my discussion I have divided my analysis into three categories of female representation: the realistically based figure of the poet's wife Eleanor, often referred to as the Beloved; female archetypes and anima as formulated by the psychologist C.G. Jung; and the poetic trope of the feminized Muse. My contention is that while the underlying effect of the early love and marriage poems is to constrain the female subject by reinforcing stereotypical gender positions, Kinsella's aesthetic representation of this relationship undergoes a transformation as his poetry matures. With regard to Kinsella's mid-career work from the 1970s and the 1980s I argue that the poet's aesthetic integration of Jungian archetypes into his poetry of psychic exploration fundamentally influences his representation of women, whether real or archetypal. These works represent a substantial advance in the complexity of Kinsella's poetry; however, the imaginative power of these poems is ultimately undermined by the very ideas that inspire them - Jungian archetypal thought - since women are represented exclusively as facilitators and symbols on this male-centered journey of self-discovery. Further complicating the gender dynamics in Kinsella's poetry is the presence of the female Muse. This figure, which becomes of increasing importance to the poet, transforms from an aestheticized image of the Beloved, to a sinister snake-like apparition, and finally into a disembodied voice that is a projection of the poet and his alter-ego. Ultimately, Kinsella's Muse is an aesthetic construction, the site of inquiry into the difficulties inherent in the creative process, and a metaphor for the creative process itself. Through his innovative deployment of the trope of the Muse, Kinsella continues to advance the aesthetics of contemporary Irish poetry.
ContributorsLeavy, Adrienne (Author) / Castle, Gregory (Thesis advisor) / Hummer, Terry (Committee member) / Hogue, Cynthia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description"Heirloom" is a short collection of fourteen poems.
ContributorsLaLone, Skyler Elizabeth (Author) / Ball, Sally (Thesis director) / Hummer, Terry (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Description
In our radically diverse world, individuals cling to their unique values and beliefs dearly, and these beliefs drive their actions and have a significant influence on their worldview. Many people derive their beliefs from religious traditions and the beliefs of their ancestors that have trickled down throughout cultures over thousands

In our radically diverse world, individuals cling to their unique values and beliefs dearly, and these beliefs drive their actions and have a significant influence on their worldview. Many people derive their beliefs from religious traditions and the beliefs of their ancestors that have trickled down throughout cultures over thousands of years. Some of these beliefs are adhered to so strictly that openness and love for people that do not hold the same beliefs is neglected, and as a result we see the manifestations of hate between cultures running rampant in today's world. However, as a human race we all came from one point of origin, or "seed". In this paper, the author posits that this "seed" arose from some divine power. The author does not seek to identify or name this divine source, only to support the idea that there is a common, spiritual origin to the human race through the examination of three diverse groups, or units, of texts. A supporting topic of this paper is the use of creative forms of language, such as poetry, to describe the spiritual "seed" of humankind. The first unit examines the pre-Christ texts of Plato and Neoplatonists. The second unit is built on Early Eastern texts like the Upanishads. The third and final unit is an analysis of mystical thinkers of the medieval ages. Finally, a conclusion follows that supports the original thesis of a common, divine origin by drawing similarities between these diverse readings.
ContributorsWathen, Samuel Isaac (Author) / Hampton, Alexander (Thesis director) / Fette, Donald (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
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Description
"Filling a Body That's Yours" is a collection of poetry that celebrates queer survival and the fluidity and mutability of identity. The poems arise from personal experience and expand to the universal in order to question and critique constructs of mental illness, queerness, transness, and identity. Via intuitive imagistic shifts,

"Filling a Body That's Yours" is a collection of poetry that celebrates queer survival and the fluidity and mutability of identity. The poems arise from personal experience and expand to the universal in order to question and critique constructs of mental illness, queerness, transness, and identity. Via intuitive imagistic shifts, unexpected language, and urgent vulnerability, the poems share a personal account of mental illness and treatment, and set out to critique the mental health industrial complex and shortcomings in language, psychiatry, and psychology. For this project, the collection of poems is coupled with a written analytical component that discusses the personal and theoretical backgrounds for the work, as well as poetics and influences. The essay specifically addresses three main themes that appear in the poems: queerness/gender, mental illness and treatment, and identity, using theorists such as Judith Butler and David Hume. Further, the essay provides personal background for the work and discusses poetic influences such as Sylvia Plath, Li-Young Lee, Claudia Rankine, and Norman Dubie. Both the poems and the essay, while addressing these themes, attempt to ask and examine questions such as: "Is my gender entirely mine? Was it thrust wholly or in part upon me? Do I choose to claim queerness, or is it innate?" In asking these questions, the poems challenge readers to consider how they came to understand their bodies as gendered, and what political ends their identities may serve. Ultimately, the poems and their theoretical counterparts complicate constructs we commonly accept as essential givens, and meditate upon timeless existential questions in new, visceral ways.
ContributorsWinter, Elliot (Author) / Fette, Donald (Thesis director) / Murdock, Natasha (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
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Description
Raised on card-catalogues, then expected to save the world with microchips, there is a generation that was left straddling two millennia. Often lumped in with the X’ers or Millennials, this generation didn’t grow up with or without technology, technology grew up with them. The poems in The Aerodynamics of Hunger

Raised on card-catalogues, then expected to save the world with microchips, there is a generation that was left straddling two millennia. Often lumped in with the X’ers or Millennials, this generation didn’t grow up with or without technology, technology grew up with them. The poems in The Aerodynamics of Hunger strike a balance between the easy-going materialism of the 90’s and our current culture of instant gratification, between the tendency to treat science like a God and prescribe God like science. These poems see straight through the world of hypersex and click-bait, yet they admit their complicity in its creation and distribution. They watch the world become connected on a new level, but testify to the resulting struggle of place one’s self in relation to something, anything. The burden is great, but journeying through it is an undeniable pleasure.
ContributorsBassett, Kyle (Author) / Rios, Alberto A (Thesis advisor) / Dubie, Norman (Committee member) / Bell, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
According to a Washington Post and YouGov study conducted in 2014, 60% of
the 861 U.S. citizens surveyed supported aid and subsidized housing for the homeless
Population. Of that same survey group, however, 52% and 46% supported banning panhandling
and sleeping in public, respectively. This disconnect highlights how we as Americans view
homelessness: people

According to a Washington Post and YouGov study conducted in 2014, 60% of
the 861 U.S. citizens surveyed supported aid and subsidized housing for the homeless
Population. Of that same survey group, however, 52% and 46% supported banning panhandling
and sleeping in public, respectively. This disconnect highlights how we as Americans view
homelessness: people who are on the fringes of society that deserve help, but only from a
distance. This creative project is a book of twenty poems in which each poem will correspond
aspects of the homeless experience. This project also serves to make the homeless population
more relatable to the general population, bring a voice to a marginalized population who are not
heard or helped, and bring about better resources for the homeless population.
The project was completed in stages. First interviews with homeless individuals were
conducted and questions such as “What is your passion?” and “What three words would you best
describe homelessness as?” A special effort was made to make sure that the thoughts and
feelings of the homeless individuals were presented without bias. The book was then put together
as a manuscript. An analytics paper was also prepared that discussed the background of the
problem, influences on poetry, and challenges throughout the process. A presentation on the
process was also prepared for the thesis defense.
ContributorsRajani, Shashank Mahesh (Author) / Fette, Donald (Thesis director) / Cohen, Liz (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
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Description
The following thesis document entitled, "A 'Reasonable Reader of Poetry's' Briefed Introduction: A Sam Harris Application on the Lack of Authorship in Poetry and Poems" explores the concept of writing itself applied to the world of poetry. This document uses Sam Harris' critique and redefinition of free will as an

The following thesis document entitled, "A 'Reasonable Reader of Poetry's' Briefed Introduction: A Sam Harris Application on the Lack of Authorship in Poetry and Poems" explores the concept of writing itself applied to the world of poetry. This document uses Sam Harris' critique and redefinition of free will as an illusion applied to authorship and the concept of self within poetry. This thesis upholds Sam Harris' application of the illusion of free will against and within conventions of experimental poetry to do with the persona poem, deviated syntax, memory, Confessionalist poetry, and so on. The document pulls in examples from Modernist poetry, Confessionalist poetry, prose poetry, contemporary poetry, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry, and experimental poetry. This thesis ends with the conclusion that further research needs to be done with regard to how this lack of authorship applies to copyright law within the poetry field.
ContributorsBoca, Ana (Author) / Hummer, Terry (Thesis advisor) / Dubie, Norman (Committee member) / Savard, Jeannine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015