This dissertation is composed of a critical preface, "Reconciling Art and Account in the Creative Essay," and the essay collection Resurrection Attempts: Essays. The preface situates the following essay collection within the genre of contemporary creative nonfiction. Specifically, it argues that genre-bending or genre hybridity are inherent and unavoidable features of creative nonfiction writing and should be celebrated, rather than denied or lamented. It points to other writers who deliberately challenge the bounds of genre, and discusses some of the collection's innovations in form and other ways it offers experimentation, such as use of unusual or borrowed points of view, disruption of chronology, and adoption of elements from other genres of writing, including fiction, poetry, and academic. Ultimately, embracing the artistic side of creative nonfiction (as opposed to its "purely" journalistic side) allows for heightened intimacy with the reader, a much wider breadth of storytelling, and a more vulnerable—and therefore more truthful—interrogation of legacy and the human experience. Resurrection Attempts is a collection of essays exploring the writer's rural Texas childhood and the early and tragic losses of her parents, including the effect of those experiences on her adult life and performance of motherhood. The voices of the writer's sisters sometimes intertwine with hers, especially as she examines the converging and diverging lenses of their shared experience. She works throughout to "resurrect" her parents and even to resurrect earlier versions of other family members, including herself. The collection is particularly fascinated with dreams, drawing a parallel between the subconscious lives of the dreamer and their waking constructions of their memories and experiences.

Under de senaste 400 åren har röstorganet inte genomgått någon utmärkande fysiologisk förändring, men under samma tidsspann har musikaliska förgreningar lett till en ständigt ökande mängd nya genreuttryck. Som genrebred sångerska har jag ofta uppmuntrats att välja inriktning. Det har helt gått emot min nyfikenhet och intuition. Jag har bedrivit studier i populärmusikalisk sång vid Berklee College of Music i Boston, USA, och klassisk sång vid Kungl. Musikhögskolan (KMH) i Stockholm. Jag har noterat att rösten ofta blir uppdelad i antingen en klassisk röst eller en populärmusikalisk röst. Syftet med detta konstnärliga examensarbete var att undersöka genreoberoende sångteknik och därigenom skapa djupare förståelse för samverkan mellan olika genreuttryck inom instrumentet sång. Jag ville undersöka om en och samma röst kan implementera olika genrer och till och med gynnas av det. På min examenskonsert framfördes en varierad repertoar, med musik av Bernstein, Mozart och Offenbach samt sånger ur Kristina från Duvemåla och egenkomponerat material. Studien genomfördes metodiskt genom litteraturstudier samt kvalitativa intervjuer med tre sakkunniga informanter; en sångpedagog, en röstforskare och en logoped. Vidare har jag utfört undersökningar med min egen röst. Studien har resulterat i en förstärkt övertygelse om den genreoberoende sångteknikens fördelar. Sångare kan ha god nytta av den flexibilitet som en sådan teknik innebär, för att bygga en hälsosam och gedigen röst. Min utgångspunkt var att undersöka rösten som ett instrument eller ett idiom. Studiens resultat påvisar att rösten bör ses som det förstnämnda. / Throughout the last four centuries, the vocal organ has not undergone any significant physiological evolution. Yet during the same time span, the musical diaspora has led to an increasing amount of new genre expressions. As a genre-bending singer, I have often been encouraged to choose musical orientation. That has been contradictory to my curiosity and intuition. I have studied contemporary singing at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, and classical singing at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden. I have noted that contemporary singing and classical singing are often viewed as two different doctrines. The purpose of this artistic research study was to explore genre-neutral and genre-bending vocal techniques in order to enhance my understanding of the relationship between different genre expressions, within the vocal instrument. I wanted to examine if one voice could implement different genres, or even benefit from it. At my graduation concert, I performed a varied repertoire consisting of music by Bernstein, Mozart and Offenbach as well as songs from Kristina from Duvemåla and self-composed pieces. The study was conducted methodically through academic literature and qualitative interviews with three experts; a vocal coach, a voice researcher, and a speech therapist. Furthermore, I have conducted research on my own voice. This study has resulted in a reinforced belief in the benefits of the genre-neutral and genre-bending vocal technique. Singers can benefit from the flexibility that such a technique amounts to, in order to build a healthy and solid voice. My objective was to analyze the voice as an instrument or an idiom. This study concludes that it should be viewed as the former.