The Minor Art of Lying

Author

Matthew Alan Morgan

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Lyons, Richard

Committee Member

Spain, Andrea

Committee Member

Pierce, Catherine

Date of Degree

5-9-2015

Original embargo terms

MSU Only Indefinitely

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Campus Access Only

Major

English

Degree Name

Master of Arts

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of English

Abstract

Joining the rich literary history of prayerful and supplicative poetry, Louise Glück’s The Wild Iris pays homage to this tradition, while at the same time subverting it. In the critical introduction, I discuss how Glück incorporates the adhesive power of paradox as a means of connecting the entire collection, with its competing and often contradictory voices, together in a meaningful way. I argue that the end result is a beautifully complex collection of spiritually secular prayers. The second part of my thesis contains thirty-eight pages of my own poetry, which also explore issues of the divine, as well as lying, family, and loss.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18269

Recommended Citation

Morgan, Matthew Alan, "The Minor Art of Lying" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 4566.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/4566