Date of Award
Spring 5-8-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in English
Department
English
First Advisor
Jaime Harker
Second Advisor
Jay Watson
Third Advisor
Daniel Stout
Fourth Advisor
Amy McDowell
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This dissertation interrogates the use of poetic fragmentation as a tool of ecological representation and coins the term “ecotonal poetics.” Ecotonal poesis, this dissertation explains, is the stretching of lyric across the field of the page, using space, sound, language, and parataxis in its attempt to not only represent but create ecotonal ecologies through text, sound, and visual cues. This dissertation puts forth four case studies of contemporary American women poets turning the space of the page into an ecotone where text, white space, author, reader, body, and environment meet. The poets studied here rely heavily on textual experimentation, suggesting that the relationship between the self and the Anthropocene requires remaking language entirely. While each text differs radically, each poet turns to the “field” in some way, adapting imagery of grasses, plains, fields, and marshlands. Framed through ecotonal ecologies such as wetlands and prairies, four chapters here explore the works of Jennifer Chang, Jos Charles, Marthe Reed, and Layli Long Soldier, exploring how each uses language, found text, and/or form to showcase the relationship between text and the field of the page. Each chapter represents a unique facet of ecotonal poesis. To write ecotonally, this dissertation argues, is to use language, punctuation, and white space in thoughtful, complicated, though seemingly unusual ways to attempt representation of a disturbed if not damaged oikos.
Recommended Citation
Balkun, Stacey, "Dredging the Wetlands, Tilling the Field: Ecotonal Poetics of the Anthropocene" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3098.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/3098
