Date of Award

6-2022

Document Type

Restricted (Opt-Out)

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

English

First Advisor

Claire Bracken

Second Advisor

Jordan Smith

Keywords

poetry, creative writing, mental health, stress, anxiety, body dysmorphia, depression

Abstract

Fantastic Lies is a collection of twenty-one free verse poems that forces readers to ask themselves difficult and reflective questions about their sense of self and identity in the context of their own memory. The collection delves into topics such as anxiety and depression, body dysmorphia, love, loss, and familial relationships. These poems situate the reader in a state of affliction, one where reality, memory, and emotion do not necessarily intersect concurrently. By way of using the past, present, and future tenses in each respective chapter, readers are provided the opportunity to grapple with their own misgiving of their past and possibly reinvent imagined past and present realities. The psychoanalytic component of memory and its intersection with truth, ultimately demonstrates that we have three different lives; the one we have cataloged as our past, the one we are currently in, and the one our mind expects us to eventually be in. More importantly, this collection exists as a reinforcement that no matter what reality our mind chooses to occupy, each time we revisit the memory, it becomes different. Alterations, exaggerations, exclusions, and excuses run rampant throughout our psychological construction of time. My motivation for this collection was to present the idea that all memories, good or bad, share the commonality of being fantastic in their ability to lie.

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Rights Statement

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.