Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Major/Program
Creative Writing
First Advisor's Name
Julie Wade
First Advisor's Committee Title
Committee chair
Second Advisor's Name
Lynne Barrett
Second Advisor's Committee Title
Committee member
Third Advisor's Name
Nathaniel Cadle
Third Advisor's Committee Title
Committee member
Keywords
Arts and Humanities, Creative Writing, English Language and Literature, Literature in English and North America, Nonfiction
Date of Defense
3-8-2021
Abstract
Influenced by— and sometimes in conversation with— diverse literary voices such as Dorothy Allision (BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA), Harry Crews (A CHILDHOOD), and Mark Doty (FIREBIRD), SPLIT AT THE ROOT is a literary bildungsroman told primarily in the narrative mode. The memoir traces the narrator’s volatile beginnings in the trailer parks of rural South Carolina in the 1980s to the day he accepted, sight unseen, an offer of admission to Yale University, boarding a plane in 1993 for the first time in his life. This memoir explores the narrator’s quest for agency, deploying the essayist mode to interrogate along the way urgent themes such as class and cultural capital, addiction, domestic violence, marginalization, survivorship, victimhood, and always with careful attention to the reader’s need for the engaging and well-told story.
Identifier
FIDC009571
Recommended Citation
Gryder, Robert S., "Split at the Root" (2021). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4680.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4680
Included in
Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Nonfiction Commons
Rights Statement
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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