East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 5-2020 The Powerful Presence of Dams in Appalachian Poetry Zoe Hester East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Appalachian Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Hester, Zoe, "The Powerful Presence of Dams in Appalachian Poetry" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3683. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3683 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Powerful Presence of Dams in Appalachian Poetry ________________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in English _____________________ By Zoë Hester May 2020 _____________________ Dr. Thomas Alan Holmes, Chair Dr. Kevin O’Donnell Dr. Chelsea Wessels Keywords: Appalachia, TVA, Dam, Power, Tennessee, North Carolina, Poetry ABSTRACT The Powerful Presence of Dams in Appalachian Poetry By Zoë Hester Contemporary Appalachian poetry offers a lens through which we can see the immense impact that the Tennessee Valley Authority has had in Appalachia. In this thesis, I explore the powerful presence of dams in Appalachian poetry by analyzing three poems.