WHAT’S NOT THE MATTER WITH KANSAS: THE KANSAS EXPERIENCE EXPRESSED THROUGH POST-CONFESSIONAL POETRY

Abstract

This thesis consists of an original creative manuscript of poetry and a critical analysis that examines the use of fragmentation and metapoetry in contemporary post-confessional poetry written or published in Kansas. The analysis investigates selected poems by F.D. Soul, Elizabeth Dodd, Wyatt Townley, and Denise Low and focuses on how these authors present a multifarious voice of Kansas through the post-confessional style. The same analytical lens is then applied to four poems from the original manuscript. The analysis also focuses on the reciprocal influence between the social aspect of the Kansas poetry community and the poetry itself. The Kansas experience, expressed through poetry, is an experience of deep interconnectivity with the land, the self, Kansas poetry, and Kansas poets. This thesis is contextualized in the discourse surrounding the literary and social value of contemporary poetry.