Investigating elements of the creative process in the work of three poets: James Wright, Gjertrud Schnackenberg, and Pegeen Kelly. Each poet deploys a different method for access to those experiences that lie at the edge of accessible language. Each method is discussed and its deployment illustrated. Wright leads us from the sensory world to the supersensual. Schnackenberg makes use of the formal device of the fairy tale. Kelly immerses in the logic of dreams. Drawing on Elaine Scarry's theory of the imagination, the case is made that the poetic act is a dialectic between the poet and the sensory world, in which perception and imagination are equally important.

Graduate school has been a time of travel through experimentation. The journey has almost always been a search for materials and sources that match my need for working with the self-referential narrative within the framework of a process. Repeatedly, I would venture out and turn back, only to venture out again, packed with new materials and image sources, in search of a complete process. In retrospect, there have been no dead ends, only quenched curiosities that sometimes cleanly, often clumsily, lead one to the other. What is left is a series of explorations from which I can pluck similarities, clues to my core interests and methods. In the end, I believe I have found a place of clarity, where interests and process converge.

Abstract In this Research paper and through my Studio practice, I search for what binds me and separates me from my children. I investigate abjection theories through Julia Kristeva and Georges Bataille and focus on a particular form I call the maternal abject. This occurs at the time an infant separates from its mother, acquires language and maps its own body. I am proposing that the mapping of the body is the point at which an individual perceives social structures and learns about prohibitions and taboos, hence the abject. I also investigate the relationship between the maternal abject and the artistic process through the writings of Kristeva. Abjection is illustrated through the works of Mona Hatoum, Fiona Hall, Hieronymus Bosch, and Paul Quinn. The maternal abject is illustrated through the works of Mary Kelly, Cindy Sherman, Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois. A possible reading of the maternal abject is given through the works of Gregory Crewdson, Joel-Peter Witkin and Francis Bacon. The studio work is in two parts. The first part is a series of layered photomedia images. The layers consist of a naked female body, which has been merged with Renaissance like Madonna and Child images. Texture, such as stones and spikes, is embedded to signify the fragility and strength of the body. Children are also present and are merged with the adult female body. All images are cradled in a darkened atmosphere in order to draw the viewer inside the images. The second part is a bassinet, which has been drilled and pierced by thousands of pearl-headed steel pins. This piece signifies the dichotomy of the motherhood experience, which on the one hand is rewarding and fulfilling and on the other an abject and isolating experience of no apparent economic value. The two parts interact so that the bassinet piece with its threatening exterior acts as an aggressor towards the photomedia images.

Abstract In this Research paper and through my Studio practice, I search for what binds me and separates me from my children. I investigate abjection theories through Julia Kristeva and Georges Bataille and focus on a particular form I call the maternal abject. This occurs at the time an infant separates from its mother, acquires language and maps its own body. I am proposing that the mapping of the body is the point at which an individual perceives social structures and learns about prohibitions and taboos, hence the abject. I also investigate the relationship between the maternal abject and the artistic process through the writings of Kristeva. Abjection is illustrated through the works of Mona Hatoum, Fiona Hall, Hieronymus Bosch, and Paul Quinn. The maternal abject is illustrated through the works of Mary Kelly, Cindy Sherman, Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois. A possible reading of the maternal abject is given through the works of Gregory Crewdson, Joel-Peter Witkin and Francis Bacon. The studio work is in two parts. The first part is a series of layered photomedia images. The layers consist of a naked female body, which has been merged with Renaissance like Madonna and Child images. Texture, such as stones and spikes, is embedded to signify the fragility and strength of the body. Children are also present and are merged with the adult female body. All images are cradled in a darkened atmosphere in order to draw the viewer inside the images. The second part is a bassinet, which has been drilled and pierced by thousands of pearl-headed steel pins. This piece signifies the dichotomy of the motherhood experience, which on the one hand is rewarding and fulfilling and on the other an abject and isolating experience of no apparent economic value. The two parts interact so that the bassinet piece with its threatening exterior acts as an aggressor towards the photomedia images.

[Truncated introduction] This thesis will introduce Petra Karin Kelly, former Green politician and campaigner for social justice and environmental issues to an English-speaking audience as an important figure in the development of ideas relating to ecofeminism, nonviolence, and Green politics and utopias. Kelly, born in 1947 in Germany, spent the latter half of her childhood in the United States, and attended university there before returning to Europe. While working with the European Community in Brussels, Kelly became involved in grassroots politics in Germany and was one of the co-founders of the German green party, Die Grunen, (literally: the Greens) in 1979. She was to become a formidable politician through her passion for grassroots politics, nonviolence and feminism and her excellent leadership skills. Later ostracised by the party, due in part to her inability and unwillingness to conform to party rules, Kelly worked independently, giving speeches and promoting peace and the importance of human rights. However, at the age of 44, she was murdered by her partner, Gert Bastian, who then shot himself. It should be noted that texts so far written on Petra Kelly have been essentially biographies, which, while encompassing much of her academic and political life, focus heavily upon her personal life, in particular her relationships with married men, and her long term relationship with former NATO General Gert Bastian ... Therefore, the aim of the dissertation is not to ignore the importance of personal matters, rather to ensure a professional approach towards them. For this reason, the focus of this sociopolitical and sociohistorical thesis is upon the elements of ecofeminism, nonviolence and utopia as they relate to Petra Kelly’s politics, both within her role with Die Grunen and in her political life outside of German parliament.

Zugl.: Berlin, Humboldt-Univ., Diss., 2007

Note:

Ce mémoire est une analyse ethnologique de chansons linguistiquement modifiées dans le répertoire de chansons traditionnelles du chanteur acadien Allain Kelly. À la première écoute, le répertoire de chansons de ce chanteur semble tout simplement se diviser en deux catégories : les chansons françaises et les chansons anglaises. Mais en réécoutant avec une ouïe aiguisée, on remarque une petite parcelle de chansons qui ont été linguistiquement modifiées. Ces modifications font l’objet de cette étude, et comprennent l’adaptation linguistique et la traduction. Cette analyse jette un regard sur les motivations qui incitent un individu bilingue et biculturel à utiliser ses ressources linguistiques et musicales pour créer de nouvelles versions de chansons. De plus, elle analyse les processus de modifications entreprises par ce traducteur populaire. Le projet s’appuie sur mes enquêtes orales auprès d’Allain Kelly, ainsi que sur des recherches auprès de ce dernier menées par d’autres ethnologues, notamment Ronald Labelle, Margaret Steiner, Helen Creighton, Louise Manny, Edward Ives et le père Anselme Chiasson. Dans un premier temps, l’examen des témoignages d’Allain Kelly élucide les perceptions de ce chanteur quant à son bilinguisme et son biculturalisme (chapitre II). C’est en analysant ses adaptations linguistiques (chapitre III) ainsi que ses traductions (chapitre IV) qu’on arrive à une meilleure compréhension du phénomène de la traduction populaire des chansons traditionnelles. L’étude démontre que le chanteur était conscient de deux auditoires distincts, l’un anglophone et l’autre francophone. Cela entraîna le désir de créer, par le biais de la chanson, un pont linguistique entre deux groupes inégaux. / This dissertation studies linguistically modified songs found in traditional singer, Allain Kelly`s repertoire. When we first listen to this bilingual and bicultural singer, his repertoire seems to be divided simply along linguistic lines, French and English songs. But, after listening more closely, another small section becomes apparent, a parcel of ( ) songs that have been linguistically modified. These songs are the object of this project. It analyses the motivations that brought Allain Kelly to use his linguistic and musical abilities to adapt and translate existing versions of traditional songs. It also looks at the process he used to carry out the modifications. The research is based on my interviews with Allain Kelly, as well as those carried out by other ethnologists notably, Ronald Labelle, Margaret Steiner, Helen Creighton, Louise Manny, Edward Ives and Père Anselme Chiasson. An analysis of Allain Kelly`s discourse helped elicit his perceptions of his own bilingualism and biculturalism (Chapter 2). The exploration of his linguistic adaptations (Chapter 3) and translations (Chapter 4) allows for a better understanding of linguistic modifications of traditional songs within one person’s repertoire. This case study explores the ties between one person’s enculturation, linguistic resources, vision of the world, and how these factors impacted his creativity. It shows that Allain Kelly perceived two distinct audiences, one, French, and the other, English. This perception fostered his desire to create a bridge between two unequal linguistic groups. It is one man’s attempt to lessen a divide, and thus fill a void, through song.

The Nashville Civil Rights Movement was one of the most dynamic local movements of the early 1960s, producing the most capable student leaders of the period 1960 to 1965. Despite such a feat, the historical record has largely overlooked this phenomenon. What circumstances allowed Nashville to produce such a dynamic movement whose youth leadership of John Lewis, Diane Nash, Bernard LaFayette, and James Bevel had no parallel? How was this small cadre able to influence movement developments on local and a national level? In order to address these critical research questions, standard historical methods of inquiry will be employed. These include the use of secondary sources, primarily Civil Rights Movement histories and memoirs, scholarly articles, and dissertations and theses. The primary sources used include public lectures, articles from various periodicals, extant interviews, numerous manuscript collections, and a variety of audio and video recordings. No original interviews were conducted because of the availability of extensive high quality interviews. This dissertation will demonstrate that the Nashville Movement evolved out of the formation of independent Black churches and college that over time became the primary sites of resistance to racial discrimination, starting in the Nineteenth Century. By the late 1950s, Nashville’s Black college attracted the students who became the driving force of a local movement that quickly established itself at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. Nashville’s forefront status was due to an intentional leadership training program based upon nonviolence. As a result of the training, leaders had a profound impact upon nearly every major movement development up to 1965, including the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, the birth of SNCC, the emergence of Black Power, the direction of the SCLC after 1962, the thinking of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Birmingham campaign, and the Selma voting rights campaign. In addition, the Nashville activists helped eliminate fear as an obstacle to Black freedom. These activists also revealed new relationship dynamics between students and adults and merged nonviolent direct action with voter registration, a combination considered incompatible.

This dissertation is comprised of a collection of poems preceded by a critical preface. The preface considers the consumed animal body as a metaphor in contemporary American poetry, specifically in the works of Galway Kinnell, Li Young Lee, and Brigit Pegeen Kelly. The consumption of the mute creature allows the poet to identify the human self in the animal other, and serves as a metaphor for our continuity with the natural world. I revise Owen Barfield’s notion of “original participation,” positing that through imaginative participation, the poet and the reader can identify the animal within the self, and thus approach a fuller understanding of both the self and the outside world. We identify the animal other within the human self, and in of this act of relating, we are able to temporarily transgress the boundaries of the individual self to create art that expresses continuity with the outside world. This argument brings about a discussion of text as an act of consumption, and the way and which this can symbolize the ways in which the self is altered through the act of reading. The book-length collection of poems, entitled Marvels of the Invisible, won Tupelo Press’s 2014 Berkshire prize for a first or second book of poetry. The poems look to sources like 17th and 18th century scientific letters, modern and contemporary art, and recent studies in biological phenomena in order to parse the intersection between personal experience and the outside world. The title of the collection points to the conceptual interests of the book: through the lens of scientific phenomena, memory, and personal history, one begins to see that what seems very small (the ant under a microscope, a Russian nesting doll, two people on horseback) are, in fact, individual offerings that articulate one’s place in the cosmos. The collective voice I advocate in the critical preface appears in these poems, especially “Echolocation,” “My Name in Sleep,” “Civilization,” and “Narrative,” all of which make use of the animal-as-metaphor. This collective voice is particularly female, and deals with motherhood, loss, and childhood experience. Poetry, as part-myth, longs to transgress the felt boundaries of the self; it must see that self as inextricably dependent on the natural world.