Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Abstract
Formed against a backdrop of interrelated memories both imagined and familial, Residue is divided into three parts dependent on the various shades of the fictional and the true. Part one, "Human Debris," assumes the ability to recollect moments that have never happened to me which are built on an empathy with everything human. Here the individual, especially the stranger, has a voice he or she has never had before. The collection begins with "Elmore Butler Visits Birdland, October 8, 1963," in which the speaker is a young black man in the civil rights era who sees John Coltrane perform at a nightclub and experiences more than the poem can speak. The pieces become progressively darker until the troubled lower-class parent debuts in "Motherhood on Channel 6." Part two, "A Forgotten Language," reunites memory with an unspoken, possibly abandoned, primordial human recollection put in the light of atrocity and disaster. The section begins with the effects of flooding in a small Peruvian coastal town in "Mampuesto to the Sea." This sets the tone of historical and observational remembrance that carries through the section. It is important to note in this part of the collection that I feel empathy can provide enough impetus to paint an accurate portrait of an event even though the writer has no direct experience in the event. Part three, "More Than Ancestry," evokes true personal memories structured around the discovery of forgotten and familial connections. "Of German Saber" begins the section with the image of a family heirloom eliciting emotions of a trauma from my youth. This is particularly indicative of memory's importance in recalling possibilities that never occurred, as in "this curved rib once fluttered like a butterfly." The focus evolves from my parents to my grandparents in "Alzheimer's" to myself in "Rooted" to my wife in the final poem, ''.Scent." Not only do "Elmore Butler Visits Birdland, October 8, 1963" and "Scent" construct the two horizons of the collection, they also best represent the experimentation in form and tone that is interspersed throughout the work. The memories incur pain, longing, joy, and finality. Their journey over, the poems of Residue shrink back into my memory from the written page, allowing other memories and poems to arise and be noticed.
Year of Submission
2001
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of English Language and Literature
First Advisor
Vince Gotera
Second Advisor
Grant Tracey
Third Advisor
Anne Myles
Date Original
2001
Object Description
1 PDF file (10 leaves)
Copyright
©2001 Nathan S. Jones
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Jones, Nathan S., "Residue" (2001). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 3106.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/3106
Comments
The creative work referenced in this graduate thesis, consisting of pages 1-52, currently is not being made available in electronic format through UNI ScholarWorks.
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