Theses and Dissertations

Author

Kayla Pearce

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Lyons, Richard

Committee Member

Pierce, Catherine

Committee Member

West, Robert

Date of Degree

5-9-2015

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

English

Degree Name

Master of Arts

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of English

Abstract

Though Sandra Beasley is not generally considered a feminist poet, many of her poems in I Was the Jukebox contain feminist undertones. This critical introduction takes into consideration the implications of these feminist undertones and examines Beasley’s cultural critique of masculinity, violence, and how the two are occasionally interchangeable. Because Beasley uses mythic personae to make these cultural critiques, her poems often work to subvert literary norms and patriarchal narratives. Similar to the way Beasley interrogates masculinity, I use a feminist perspective to interrogate both masculinity as perceived from my own lived experiences as well as my heritage as a Southerner.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18107

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