Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

English Language and Literatures

First Advisor

Ed Madden

Abstract

This thesis uses poetry to explore the history of my childhood neighborhood Bluefield, which lies outside of the city of Johnsonville. Several factors have gone into the writing of this manuscript: interviewing elders of the neighborhood; researching land deeds; conducting water and soil samples to explore the possibility of environmental causes of high cancer rates; and exploring my individual grief and the collective grief of an aging and dying community. Bluefield is a community that is Southern, predominately Black, and low income; the voices of its residences, along with my poetic voice, pervade the manuscript, which includes elegies for the dead and monologues from surviving members of the community.

Rights

© 2014, Jennifer Sharain Bartell

Available for download on Friday, June 14, 2024

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