last blues on red hands
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Fine Arts
Major
Creative Writing
Date of Defense
4-13-2018
Graduate Advisor
Shane Seely
Committee
Shane Seely
Steven Schreiner
Victoria Walls
Abstract
My full-length poetry collection explores the relationship or the lack thereof between the “other” and the self, or in a few cases, the intrarelationship of the speaker. By asking readers to inhabit either the “I” or the “you” in the poems, they begin to assign their own value to the remaining position. My bachelor’s degree is in both English and Psychology, and in my poetry, I marry these two disciplines by exploring social psychology through writing about intimate relationships between speakers and the “other” in the poems. As a young woman, one of the main themes explored throughout my thesis is the question of a woman’s value in a patriarchal society and how that value is assigned. I try to create work that is relevant as well as lyrical, as one of my passions as a writer is to create poetry that is accessible for adolescent readers, particularly adolescent females. I want to bring to light issues that affect teens, such as mental illness and the fight for equality. Some of my work, such as “histrionic (case study)” and “things my boyfriends taught me,” explore mental illness and the way rape culture and the cycle of abuse continue to negatively affect future relationships. My thesis also engages in the "gurlesque" movement.
Recommended Citation
Covey, Charlotte, "last blues on red hands" (2018). Theses. 327.
https://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/327