Award Date
5-1-2020
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Committee Member
Donald Revell
Second Committee Member
Claudia Keelan
Third Committee Member
Emily Setina
Fourth Committee Member
Giuseppe Natale
Number of Pages
64
Abstract
Nothing Orphic, Nothing Foreign is a serial long poem in three parts grounded in the narration of a lyric “I,” the never singular, always multifarious, voice operating out of the depersonalization and distancing felt in the work of language-centered writing and the expressionism of Conceptual poetry. This lyric “self” establishes the self-similarity of the work in its continual patterning and rephrasing that express the constantly shifting depths of focus, tonal registers, modes of expression, and compositional strategies. The poem is a mosaic, a constellation, where the lyric “you” becomes an estranged figure, seen but unheard, heard but unseen, distant and yet forever close, moments shared shatter through the interpretive grasping of the mind or the cracks and crevices in the nature of language itself. The dissertation draws on the innovative traditions stemming out of Modernism, specifically the historical consciousness showcased in the orientation to and utilization of the past in the work of Eliot, Pound, and Zukofsky, where the differing citations and allusions are constantly slipping between the authentic and the satirical. Nothing Orphic, Nothing Foreign presents a layering through language of the mediation between consciousness and the natural world; where interpretation of the event or object removes the experiencer from the experience, affirming an exhilarating and inspiring epistemological skepticism which finds its reconciliation in reaching toward the Divine. The appearance of order and randomness and their interaction, both thematically and compositionally, continually separate and unite the commonness and authenticity of expression in natural speech, the codification of written language, and, ultimately, the transcendence of silence.
Keywords
Lyric; Serial long poem; Conceptual poetry
Disciplines
English Language and Literature
File Format
File Size
0.540 MB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Repository Citation
Gilpin, Samuel Merriman, "Nothing Orphic, Nothing Foreign" (2020). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 3897.
http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/19412077
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/