The end of Tennessee : a collection of essays

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation analyzes the complications of existing in a violent world as much as it explores formal and experimental narrative techniques. As such, the author leans into the voids and chaos of fragmented recollections, which is apparent in some essays by the staccato rhythm and repetition of language and in others through point of view changes, shifts in time, and the resistance of fleshed out exposition. In more linearly structured essays, landscape and lyrical language often guide the narrative arc.