Date of Graduation
Spring 2024
Degree
Master of Arts in English
Department
English
Committee Chair
Sara Burge
Abstract
This creative thesis includes thirty-four poems and thirteen illustrations that investigate the topic of self-exploration, creative freedom, and liberatory pleasure. My poems are souvenirs from a failed ethical standard, a trove of misogynic micro-aggressions, a spotlight on the backward- ness of gender norms, and a surprisingly strong thread that links women to the planet and to shared language, a thread humankind continuously tries to cut. The methods of research were largely a self- study and one that required consistent reflection. The results were a collection of writings that had to be revised and edited with the guidance of my thesis committee. The more intangible result is visible within the writing; I, the writer, underwent a change in approach. Not only am I now committed to the process of revision, but I also see its utility as a life skill. Readers will also clearly see a reckoning with loss of control, acceptance that control is not a pillar of the human experience, a reclaiming of the body, acknowledging the body’s temporality, advocacy against newness and speed, and a devotion and loyalty to family and friendships. I draw inspiration from Adrianne Rich’s call for writers to “wake from the dead” and Richard Hugo’s “Triggering Town,” an uncomfortable place for the writer to inhabit, but one that produces honest work. My writing is a reckoning, an I- don’t-know-how-I-really-feel made visible via openness and vulnerability. My creative lens has been inspired by the works of Ada Limón, Maggie Nelson, Sharon Olds, Naomi Shahib Nye, Louise Glück, and other writers at play.
Keywords
creative writing, prose, poetry, revision, memory, temporary, metaphor, destruction, imagination
Subject Categories
Creative Writing | Graphic Design | Illustration | Poetry | Printmaking
Copyright
© Emma Jane Sullivan
Recommended Citation
Sullivan, Emma Jane, "Outside Inside: Poems" (2024). MSU Graduate Theses. 4007.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/4007
Open Access
