The vast majority of theses in this collection are open access and freely available. There are a small number of theses that have access restricted to the WWU campus. For off-campus access to a thesis labeled "Campus Only Access," please log in here with your WWU universal ID, or talk to your librarian about requesting the restricted thesis through interlibrary loan.

Date Permissions Signed

5-22-2020

Date of Award

Spring 2020

Document Type

Masters Thesis (Campus-Only Access)

Department or Program Affiliation

English

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Miller, Brenda, 1959-

Second Advisor

Beasley, Bruce, 1958-

Third Advisor

Loar, Christopher F.

Abstract

Every Needful Thing is a collection of essays and poems about a girl, a mother, a woman, a Mormon once-insider-now-outsider. The collection wrestles with uncertainty in identity, role, responsibility, and survival. Every Needful Thing can function in two parts, each in respect to a kind of care. In the first part, what bubbles to the surface is the narrator’s/speaker’s mindfulness of gender expectations—taking particular care to overextend herself and emphasize abnegation and submission in her movement through the world. In the second part, she emphasizes parenthood as a way of living. Devotion is a central tenet in each part.

Heavily fragmented and braided, Every Needful Thing relies on accumulation to push meaning beyond what appears in any one particular section, in any one line. It’s an attempt at alchemy: mess into bounty.

Type

Text

Keywords

feminism, mormonism, motherhood, chiari, reindeer, syrinx

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

1155809084

Subject – LCSH

Women--Identity--Fiction; Sex role--Fiction; Feminism--Religious aspects--Mormon Church--Fiction; Creative writing

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Download

(You must be on campus or login via ezproxy to view)

Share

COinS