Project Director

Einstein, Sarah

Department Examiner

Baker, Sybil

Department

Dept. of English

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

In “Structure: Lifeblood of the Lyric Essay,” Lesh Karan writes: “I had discovered a prose genre where the writer leans on form… to eloquently hold the inexpressible aboutness, to let meaning dance in the spaces between its juxtaposed parts.” The lyric essay engages us in a search for an elusive truth, and attempts to give definition to things that, while hanging heavy above us, may have been unclear until put to paper. This form provides a powerful medium through which an author can explore their own conflicting perspectives, giving voice to emotions and experiences that illuminate our paradoxical and imprecise lives. Carmen Maria Machado writes: “The memoir is, at its core, an act of resurrection. Memoirists recreate the past, reconstruct dialogue. They summon meaning from events that have long been dormant. They braid the clays of memory and essay and fact and perception together, smash them into a ball, roll them flat. They manipulate time, resuscitate the dead. They put themselves, and others, into necessary context” (In the Dream House, 8). In my own work, I am interested in the complexity of perspective, how what is omitted can weigh as much as what is told, how stories can evolve through different tellings. In my original works, I explore the forms of the lyric essay, to find the ways in which different stories suit different essay styles.

Degree

B. A.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Date

8-2022

Subject

Craft essays; Creative nonfiction

Keyword

Lyric essay; creative nonfiction;

Discipline

Nonfiction

Document Type

Theses

Extent

49 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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Included in

Nonfiction Commons

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