Date of Award

6-15-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, English and Literary Arts

First Advisor

Graham Foust

Second Advisor

Saleh Saterstrom

Third Advisor

Patrick Cottrell

Fourth Advisor

Thomas Nail

Keywords

Poetry, Performance, Trans lit, Mormonism, Travel writing, Serial poetry

Abstract

the fold explores what it means for a trans ex-Mormon poet to become a speaking subject through the vocation of poetry. In part a result of a year-and-a-half-long itinerancy and a lack of risk aversion, the fold occupies the edge of risk and play where attachments to scarcity and survival narratives can be interrupted (through “self-interruption” per Lauren Berlant), discovering instead desire, love, and its forms. Movement as a process is an entry into performance and transformation. Through duration and performance, the body becomes both tool and method for trans subjectivity to become legible, while still maintaining Glissant’s claim that “din is discourse.” Through its serial work, the fold seeks to envision conditions for self-sovereignty, to experience this physically as a precarious body with other precarious bodies. Like pollinators moving from flower to flower, the movement of desire creates movement toward collective pleasure, the social and sensuous become the plane of ethical action. Through this activity, we create folds of meaning in our daily uncompensated labors, in every gesture and point of contact.

Copyright Date

6-2024

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. This work may only be accessed by members of the University of Denver community. The work is provided by permission of the author for individual research purposes only and may not be further copied or distributed. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Cass Eddington

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

132 pgs

File Size

644 KB

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