QUEENS of SHEBA a Project Presented to the Faculty Of
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QUEENS OF SHEBA A Project Presented to the Faculty of California State University, Chico In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in English by © Daria Donoghue Booth 2017 Spring 2017 QUEENS OF SHEBA A Project by Daria Donoghue Booth Spring 2017 APPROVED BY THE INTERIM DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES: Sharon Barrios, Ph.D. APPROVED BY THE GRADUATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Rob Davidson, Ph.D., Chair Paul Eggers, Ph.D. PUBLICATION RIGHTS No portion of this project may be reprinted or reproduced in any manner unacceptable to the usual copyright restrictions without the written permission of the author. iii DEDICATION This project is dedicated to Russ, Catherine, Al, Norah, and John. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Rob Davidson and Paul Eggers, my advisors and graduate project committee. Your teaching, sage advice, careful consideration of my work, support, and encouragement, were a driving force that was integral to creating and completing this project. I am deeply appreciative of your roles in my development as a writer. Thank you to my writing friend Jill North, who suggested I read Wendy Ortiz’s essays, to help me figure out how to write about running away. Thank you to WOTS, my writing group, for your thoughtful and honest feedback, for sharing your writing, and for your encouragement. Thank you to my supervisors who allowed me to complete my degree while working at Chico State. Thank you to the fee waiver program, and the very kind people who make it run so well. Thank you to my fellow returning students, especially the ones who are older than I am. I liked having you in my classes. Thank you to Mrs. Armstrong who liked my haikus. Thank you to Norah and George Donoghue, Catherine and Alexander Boyce, Russ Booth, and John Francis Donoghue. I loved your stories and I always will. v Thank you to libraries. Thank you to the lady with the pink umbrella in the rain on that day in San Francisco in front of the public library, for saying, “The rain, it’s so soft.” Thank you to my mother, Kathleen, for listening, for your encouragement, and for laughing at my jokes. Thank you to Hannah for inspiring me, for laughing with me, and for your musical expertise. Thank you to Alan, for your love and patience, and for bringing coffee in the morning. Thank you coffee. You’re the best. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Publication Rights ....................................................................................................... iii Dedication ................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments....................................................................................................... v Abstract ....................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I. Critical Introduction .................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER II. Essays ....................................................................................................... 26 Queens of Sheba ........................................................................... 27 Kitchens ........................................................................................ 46 Wonder Widow ............................................................................. 68 Bullies ........................................................................................... 80 Booth’s Anatomy .......................................................................... 94 Mad Man ....................................................................................... 109 Running Away .............................................................................. 123 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………. 141 vii ABSTRACT QUEENS OF SHEBA by © Daria Donoghue Booth Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2017 Queens of Sheba is a collection of six personal essays that seek to present both personal story and universal themes. In my essays, I share stories of my family, my father’s dementia, the loss of my first husband, my relationship with food and body image, my grandmother and her kitchen, and running away from home. I intentionally hop from story to story, like stepping-stones across a creek, exploring the themes of the richness of the ordinary, loss and the grieving process, and sisterhood or “sororitas.” In his introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present, Philip Lopate states, “At the core of the personal essay is the supposition that there is a certain unity to human experience” (xxiii). In my essays, the personal anecdote may be the springboard to the larger topic, or it may be interwoven throughout, eventually merging with the over-arching theme, connecting my story or reflection with a universal idea or question. In the Critical Introduction, I discuss how I choose to emphasize the “personal” part of the personal essay, embracing both its memoir-like study of complex character and the broader aims of the personal essay genre. CHAPTER I CRITICAL INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER I CRITICAL INTRODUCTION In the essays collected in Queens of Sheba, I emphasize the “personal” part of the personal essay, embracing both its memoir-like study of complex character and the broader aims of the personal essay genre. I look at a family photograph, which prompts a memory of my grandmother, and I write about how she fixed my hair when I was small. In the essay “Queens of Sheba,” I share this anecdote and weave through the essay thoughts about hairstyles, beauty salons, and women’s clothing. These thoughts lead to broader themes such the meaning of beauty, sisterhood, and female empowerment. The foundational personal story in this essay is about my first job as a hair washer in my uncle’s beauty salon, where “the women drank Tab, had frightening chemical treatments done to their hair that smelled like poison and probably were, and they were happy in this place.” Through this reflection, my understanding was expanded to know “. the true power of a great hair-do and the way that it could transform almost any woman, and the value of and need for women to share their joys and sorrows with each other” (32). In his introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present, Philip Lopate states, “At the core of the personal essay is the supposition that there is a certain unity to human experience” (xxiii). In my essays, the personal anecdote may be the springboard to the larger topic, or it may be interwoven throughout, eventually merging with the over-arching theme, connecting my story or reflection with a universal idea or question. I write in this genre as it allows a freedom of expression in looking at the large and the small, the outrageous and mundane, my grandmother and all women. Through 3 my personal lens and unique voice, I spark the reader’s attention and entice her to join me in a conversation. Anne Fadiman discusses the Familiar Essay genre in the preface of her collection, At Large and At Small, differentiating it from the Critical and Personal Essay genres, “Today’s readers encounter plenty of critical essays (more brain than heart) and plenty of personal—very personal—essays (more heart than brain), but not many familiar essays (equal measures of both)” (xxx). She further describes the writer of this genre: “The familiar essayist didn’t speak to the millions; he spoke to one reader, as if the two of them were sitting side by side in front a crackling fire . His viewpoint was subjective, his frame of reference concrete, his style digressive, his eccentricities conspicuous, and his laughter usually at his own expense” (x). Similar to Fadiman, I derive inspiration from conversations overheard at my childhood dinner table, and by my lifelong propensity to pay rapt attention to the things people say and do. Whether it is via eavesdropping on strangers while walking down the street, or in a direct exchange with someone I know, I am often both fascinated and moved by what I hear and see, and feel compelled to frame it in a larger context. The minute and often telling details born of close observation are what bring a story or memory to life for the reader. In the essay, “Mad Man,” when my father is about to confront me, what I remember so very clearly are his eyebrows: “He’s looking at me like I’m a stranger, his eyebrows sticking straight out, at least half an inch, black caterpillars, yelling at each other, yelling at me” (109). This physical detail provides a visual picture, but also insight into his character, as seen through my lens. In my essays, I share stories of my family, my father’s dementia, the loss of my first husband, my relationship with food and body image, my grandmother and her 4 kitchen, and running away from home. I intentionally hop from story to story, like stepping-stones across a creek, exploring the themes of the richness of the ordinary, loss and the grieving process, and sisterhood or “sororitas.” Looking at ratios of heart and brain, and overall themes in my writing, the collection of essays in Queens of Sheba as a whole, are a version of the personal essay genre. The power of the ordinary is a prominent theme in my writing. Whether it is an event, a verbal exchange, a living being, or an inanimate object, I champion the extraordinariness of the ordinary thing itself, but also emphasize how it can hold a whole memory, conjure