Yardbirds

<p>Novel-length fictions, when at their best, deeply complicate themes, characters, events or situations using the form’s lengthy narrative arc. <em>Yardbirds</em> aims to employ the long narrative arc to engage a fictional west Arkansas mountain community, Ink, and the contemporary post-mill economy evoked. <em>Yardbirds</em> attempts to disorient the traditional notion of point-of-view to recognize the multifaceted power of the land. This work features a multi-racial, bilingual and multicultural community which confronts the longstanding black-white binary that has dominated literary depictions of the American South. This work aims to disrupt that notion—the South as monolith—by presenting bioregional communities as central to individuals’ cultural and economic lives. <em>Yardbirds</em> engages death and deterioration—themes abundantly apparent in Arkansas communities—through a cyclical mindset: what is here today, I hope to show, is only a condition for tomorrow’s many choices. By recognizing the inherit agency of all forms, the characters in this novel are able to progress to a more-just, inevitable end.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Fine Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Brewer, Joshua A

Contributors dc:contributor

• Matthew Frank

• Fiction
• Other American Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/54

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.nmu.edu:theses-1070