Beyond Materiality: the Self and the Malleable Body in Alyse Knorr's Copper Mother and Dalton Day's Exit, Pursued
BEYOND MATERIALITY: THE SELF AND THE MALLEABLE BODY IN ALYSE KNORR'S COPPER MOTHER AND DALTON DAY'S EXIT, PURSUED Micaela Tore A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2019 Committee: Kimberly Coates, Advisor William Albertini © 2019 Micaela Tore All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Kimberly Coates, Advisor This project explores representations of the human body in two poetry collections, Copper Mother by Alyse Knorr, and Exit, Pursued by Dalton Day. Both published in 2016, Copper Mother imagines a future in which extraterrestrial beings discover the Voyager Golden Record and visit Earth. Exit, Pursued presents a surreal world with no tangible sense of space, time, or materiality, as Day explores the possibilities of malleable bodies. I argue in Chapter One, that by attempting to understand the human through the eyes of an alien Other, Alyse Knorr breaks down definitions of bodily normativity, allowing us to gaze upon both human and Other from a space of empathy, free from preconceived notions of the human body. In Chapter Two, I argue that by removing all standards of normativity, or even of material consistency, Dalton Day allows the reader to inhabit an entirely non-normative body, while extending our expectations of what a human body should be or do. Both poetry collections, then, open up possibilities for the human body based not in normative expectations, but in individual understandings of the self, and in empathy for the Other. Keywords: body theory; 2016; poetry; Dalton Day; Alyse Knorr; surrealism; materiality; Butler; Haraway iv For my friends, and for my wonderful department.
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