“Caroline”: Deviance in Southern Women’s Poetry

Author

Sage Aspyn ShortFollow

Date of Award

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Su Cho

Committee Member

Professor Desiree Bailey

Committee Member

Dr. Clare Mullaney

Abstract

Deviance in Southern women’s poetry can be characterized by uncertainty, religious images, and through the telling of stories often unheard of, forgotten, or erased, like racial and gendered violence. Glenis Redmond’s poetry in The Listening Skin and What My Hand Say both explore Southern womanhood alongside race, history, violence, illness, and legacy, among other themes and topics. In Caroline: Poems some deviances include religious metaphors alongside obsessive compulsive disorder, excessive cursing from a woman speaker, and historical graveyard musings. Critical texts about lyric theory and voice provide some background and historical significance to be used in this contemporary study and practice of what the voice of deviance looks like in Southern women’s poetry.

Recommended Citation

Short, Sage Aspyn, "“Caroline”: Deviance in Southern Women’s Poetry" (2024). All Theses. 4302.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4302