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Full text of this paper is not available in the ETD Center. Copies may be available for inter-library loan from Bowling Green State University or may be available for purchase from Proquest/UMI

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The Mayor of Parts Unknown

Rodgers, Paul Arrand
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1344098353

Abstract Details

2012, Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, Creative Writing/Poetry.
The Mayor of Parts Unknown is a collection focusing on the notion of heroism, particularly the clash between society's perception of a heroic figure and that figure's often tragic reality. The poems in this collection explore the themes of loss, humility, failure, and manhood. Many of the subjects in The Mayor of Parts Unknown are real professional wrestlers, men and women who are held up to society as exaggerated examples of masculinity and femininity. The men are impossibly muscled. Their female counterparts are unnaturally beautiful. There is a level of fakery to professional wrestling beyond the common notion of it's being a fixed sport, as its competitors are rarely the alpha-males they portray on television to an audience comprised mostly of adolescent males. This heightened masculinity is what many of the poems here deal with, both the pressure it places on the in-ring performers, and the unfair expectations it places on the viewer.
Sharona Muir (Committee Chair)
Karen Craigo (Advisor)
Larissa Szporluk Celli (Committee Member)
pro wrestling; wrestling; poetry; poetry collection; masculinity; pop culutre

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rodgers, P. A. (2012). The Mayor of Parts Unknown [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1344098353

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rodgers, Paul. The Mayor of Parts Unknown. 2012. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1344098353.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rodgers, Paul. "The Mayor of Parts Unknown." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1344098353

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1344098353