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Wilson-Battles MFA Thesis (1).pdf (461.17 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Grass Widow

Wilson-Battles, Barbara R
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416592019

Abstract Details

2014, MFA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
The poems collected in Grass Widow contend with themes of gendered loss, interpersonal violence, substance abuse, the legacy of non-sustainable industry, and the effects of poverty and unemployment on Appalachian Southern Ohio. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term “grass widow” as “an unmarried woman who has cohabited with one or more men; a discarded mistress” (OED). The term, additionally, came to signify a lower class status, associated with deviant female sexuality. Ultimately, the collection is concerned with the intersection of definition and personal narrative, and the unreliability of both. The broken characters comprising Grass Widow vacillate between resistance against and resignation to outside perceptions of their identity, while the Southern Ohio landscape operates as a liminal space where inertia thwarts potential escape, and unexpected beauty counteracts trauma. Traditional ballads utilized as epigraphs collide with pop culture intrusions as representations of an area haunted by its damaging, industrial past and a vocationally uncertain future.
Mary Biddinger, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Catherine Wing, MFA (Committee Member)
Philip Brady, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
55 p.
Literature
Poetry; Gender; Appalachia

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wilson-Battles, B. R. (2014). Grass Widow [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416592019

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wilson-Battles, Barbara. Grass Widow. 2014. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416592019.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wilson-Battles, Barbara. "Grass Widow." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1416592019

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1416592019
269
© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.