Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
English
Date of Award
5-2020
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Thomas Alan Holmes
Committee Members
Kevin O’Donnell, Chelsea Wessels
Abstract
Contemporary Appalachian poetry offers a lens through which we can see the immense impact that the Tennessee Valley Authority has had in Appalachia. In this thesis, I explore the powerful presence of dams in Appalachian poetry by analyzing three poems. Jesse Graves’s “The Road into the Lake” centers on personal and familial loss, Jackson Wheeler’s “The TVA Built a Dam” mourns the loss of communities, and Rose McLarney’s “Imminent Domain” focuses on the ecological destruction that has occurred in Appalachia and around the globe as the result of the construction of TVA dams. Ultimately, all three poems serve as eulogies of time, land, and lives that have been stolen, offering warnings against further ecological and societal desecration.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Hester, Zoe, "The Powerful Presence of Dams in Appalachian Poetry" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3683. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3683
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
Appalachian Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, United States History Commons