English, Department of
First Advisor
Stacey Waite
Date of this Version
5-2024
Citation
A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
Major: English
Under the supervision of Professor Stacey Waite
Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2024
Abstract
LESSONS IN PERSISTENCE is a thesis that operates within the tradition of writing about trauma and resilience, taking up themes of mental illness, class, colonialism, loss of a parent, navigating queerness in a conservative Christian context, and reckoning with gender-based violence and expectations directed toward people socialized as women. The use of ecopoetics highlights the relationship between traumas to the earth brought about by climate change, war, and worldwide suffering, and those brought upon the human body (specifically marginalized bodies) by grief, illness, abuse, and the loss of self. The collection ultimately aims to establish explicit connections between internal and external ecosystems, the forces of capitalism, colonialism, and the cis-heteropatriarchy on the human body and the earth, and the ways we can look to nature for hope, healing, and survival amid profound suffering.
Advisor: Stacey Waite
Included in
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Comments
Copyright 2024, Syble Heffernan. Used by permission