Date of Award

August 2013

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

English

First Advisor

Kimberly Blaeser

Committee Members

Valerie Laken, Gwynne Kennedy, Richard Leson, Brenda Cardenas

Keywords

Art, Marriage, Motherhood, Poetry, Pregnancy, Religion

Abstract

This collection of poems takes as its subject desire in its various guises. Religious desire--the human need to find faith and to hope for an afterlife, and the doubt and skepticism in those very needs--is braided together with more earthly desires, as well as with ruminations on artistic ambition. These poems situate themselves within the rich tradition of the postconfessional, transmuting autobiographical elements to form a narrative of marriage, pregnancy, loss and birth that anchors the book. This narrative is juxtaposed with other lyric voices to explore the connections between hunger of all kinds.

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