Identifier

etd-0402103-115549

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

As one might expect from a young poet writing at the turn of a millennium, recurrent in "Caller ID" is the theme of struggle with literary tradition and of seeing it as both necessary and constricting to the project of forging one's own creative identity. The collision between history and the self is visible in the often conflicted references to great philosophers and poets of the past as well as in the call for renewal of the body poetic after an envisioned 'end of history' marked by creative sterility and exhaustion. The proposed renewal does not entail destruction of tradition but rather a replenishment of poetic curiosity, a newfound thirst for restructuring and linguistic play with and within the tropes distilled through the ages. Among the super-objectives of "Caller ID" is the desire to marry the unbridled vigor of post-modernism with the higher stakes of Stevensian poetic inquiry. In attempting this uneasy fusion, the voice slips on a series of masks in order to take on subjects ranging from the mundane to the sublime. What remains consistent throughout this collection of poetry, however, is the voice's unrelenting interest in observing and commenting upon its own creative proceedings.

Date

2003

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Andrei Codrescu

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2374

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