Date of Award

8-2015

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

English

Program

Creative Writing (MFA)

First Advisor/Chairperson

Mathew Frank

Abstract

This thesis is a collection in four parts, divided by genre with the exception of the titular essay series, Finding Tuwaqachi. Insecurity, affirmation, and our need to connection emerge as the primary themes of this work. The essay series, Finding Tuwaqachi, takes a close look at intentional community and center for alternative therapy located in southern Michigan during the 1970s, by examining several lives caught up in this project. Part two of this collection comprises a series of lyric essays which explore the need to be heard, as well as the ultimate fallibility of our attempts to understand and imagine others as complete human beings. The third installment of this collection consists of a series of poems, many of which were written in blank verse that explore landscapes and imagery, paying particular attention the tension between alienation and intimacy. The final installment of this manuscript is a collection of short memoir examining insecurity and the fraught social territory through which the speaker has attempted to reach out to others, or others have attempted to reach out to him. Each section draws on a wide range of experiments in form and voice to provide a varied and well-rounded approach to their respective themes.

Access Type

Open Access

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