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1	Loving the Mountains, Leaving the Mountains: The Appalachian Dilemma and Jim Wayne Miller’s The Brier Poems Dawson, Madeline 01 May 2022 (has links) For decades now, the Appalachian community has been internally combatting two equally strong feelings—an inherently rich love of the mountains and a conflicting urge to leave the mountains. In recent years, Appalachian writers have produced a new literary tradition of identifying, discussing, and remedying this dilemma. Jim Wayne Miller’s 1997 The Brier Poems unapologetically explores the Appalachian community’s complicated relationship to its region. bell hooks’ 2012 Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place and Savannah Sipple’s 2019 WWJD and Other Poems then expand Miller’s exploration as both hooks and Sipple collectively represent voices that have often been left out of the stereotypical Appalachian narrative; their literature widens the lens of Appalachian experience and repositions the importance of the Appalachian canon. hooks and Sipple are contemporaries in conversation with Miller as all three authors have declared the Appalachian experience to have never been hegemonic—reclaiming, embracing, and uniting a modern Appalachian identity. Jim Wayne Miller Savannah Sipple bell hooks Appalachian Poetry The Brier Poems Literature in English, North America
2	Mimetic Transformations of Sacred Symbols: Christianity in Appalachian Literature. Sanders, Adam K 07 May 2005 (has links) (PDF) Though many representations of Appalachian religious practices describe conservative, stagnant, xenophobic, and backward traditions, some authors present Christian practices in Appalachia as a potential source of social and individual progressiveness. Denise Giardina in Storming Heaven and The Unquiet Earth, Jim Wayne Miller in "Brier Sermon: 'You Must Be Born Again,'" and Lee Smith in Fair and Tender Ladies all represent "mountain religion" practices that offer relevancy not only to the characters in the novel but also to the reader. Analysis of these works through their symbolic representations of uniquely Appalachian religious traditions reveals the authors' commitment to sacralizing social and individual struggle through the sacred and mimetic transformations of characters and communities. By reusing and reinterpreting sacred patterns, both biblical and more contemporary regional patterns, the authors associate their works with sacred and regional traditions, demonstrating the viability, the flexibility, and the vitality of regional religious practices. Appalachian literature religion Lee Smith Jim Wayne Miller Denise Giardina Arts and Humanities English Language and Literature Religion
3	North of Ourselves: Identity and Place in Jim Wayne Miller’s Poetry McCrotty, Micah 01 May 2019 (has links) Jim Wayne Miller’s poetry examines how human history and topography join to create place. His work often incorporates images of land and ecology; it deliberately questions the delineation between place and self. This thesis explores how Miller presents images of water to describe the relationship between inhabitants and their location, both with the positive image of the spring and the negative image of the flood. Additionally, this thesis examines how the Brier, Miller’s most prominent persona character, grieves his separation from home and ultimately finds healing and reunification of the self through his return to the hills. In his poetry, Miller argues that an essential piece of people’s identity is linked with the land, and, through recognition of the importance of topography on the development of the self, individuals can foster a deeper sense of community through appreciation of their place. Jim Wayne Miller Appalachian Poetry Southern Poetry Landscape The Mountains Have Come Closer Place Theory American Literature Appalachian Studies Ethnomusicology Fine Arts Literature in English, North America Modern Literature Oral History United States History

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