Committee Chair

Wymer, Justin

Committee Member

Palmer, Heather; Baker, Sybil; Babine, Karen, 1978-

Department

Dept. of English

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

This thesis contains two parts: a craft essay titled “Shapes of Refusal: The Anti-Testimony and Realizing Hope through Form” and a multi-modal manuscript consisting of hybrid poetic forms titled You Have the Body: An Anti-Testimony. The creative writing manuscript is a re-imagining of admissible evidence based on the needs of victims of sexual assault who are often re-traumatized by the U.S. justice system. The craft essay applies a critical lens based on Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison and Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others by Sara Ahmed to analyze narrative fractalization, intentional opacity, and queer rhetorical re-orientation in two formally and thematically related works: Precious Rubbish by Kayla E. and Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. The craft essay relates this analysis to the creative manuscript to posit that it is an original minor form invented by the author called an anti-testimony.

Acknowledgments

I hold deep gratitude for the many wonderful, talented, and caring folks who helped make this thesis project possible. First, I want to thank Dr. Justin Wymer for challenging, supporting, and inspiring me through this difficult writing process. Thank you for introducing me to the world of hybrid-form writing. You are an incredible cook. Also, I want to thank Prof. Sybil Baker for your invaluable mentorship, insistent peer pressure, and for sharing resources over the years. Thank you for pushing me to take Richard Jackson’s Poetry workshop in 2016. It changed my life. I also thank my other committee members: Dr. Heather Palmer and Dr. Karen Babine for their time, care, and sharp critiques. Thank you, Health Shultz and Katie Hargrave. Your art and writing practices continue to set standards of excellence and inspire my work. Also, thank you to Kayla E. and Selah Saterstrom, both of whom so kindly allowed me to interview them about their respective creative processes, healing, and forging new paths as queer artists from the American South. Thank you to my friends, family, and coworkers for your patience, much needed distractions, and TLC. Finally, thank you to Trout: my best friend of four legs, who kindly dog-eared many pages.

Degree

M. A.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts.

Date

12-2025

Subject

Experimental poetry, American; Justice, Administration of--United States--Psychological aspects; Sexual abuse victims' writings, American

Keyword

poetry, creative non-fiction, experimental writing, memoir, testimony, justice system

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

x, 117 leaves

Language

English

Rights

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

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Date Available

1-1-2029

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Available for download on Monday, January 01, 2029

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