University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Summer 2020 Aesthetic Activisms: Language Politics and Inheritances in Recent Poetry From the U.S. South Sunshine Dempsey Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Dempsey, S.(2020). Aesthetic Activisms: Language Politics and Inheritances in Recent Poetry From the U.S. South. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/6041 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Aesthetic Activisms: Language Politics and Inheritances in Recent Poetry from the U.S. South by Sunshine Dempsey Bachelor of Arts Colorado State University, 2006 Master of Fine Arts Colorado State University, 2010 Master of Arts Lynchburg College, 2014 _____________________________________________________ Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2020 Accepted by: Brian Glavey, Major Professor Michael Dowdy, Committee Member Ed Madden, Committee Member Tara Powell, Committee Member Rebecca Janzen, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Sunshine Dempsey, 2020 All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION For my grandparents, Robert and Rees Hemphill, and for T and P iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of my committee, Brian Glavey, Michael Dowdy, Tara Powell, Ed Madden, and Rebecca Janzen. Thank you all for your time and your incredibly helpful feedback.