Novel-length fictions, when at their best, deeply complicate themes, characters, events or situations using the form’s lengthy narrative arc. Yardbirds aims to employ the long narrative arc to engage a fictional west Arkansas mountain community, Ink, and the contemporary post-mill economy evoked. Yardbirds 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. Yardbirds 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.
","abstract_html":"<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>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Brewer, Joshua A"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Matthew Frank"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:34Z","subjects":["Fiction","Other American Studies"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/54","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Matthew Frank"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Brewer, Joshua A"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-07-10T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Fiction","Other American Studies"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/54"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Novel-length fictions, when at their best, deeply complicate themes, characters, events or situations using the form’s lengthy narrative arc. Yardbirds aims to employ the long narrative arc to engage a fictional west Arkansas mountain community, Ink, and the contemporary post-mill economy evoked. Yardbirds 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. Yardbirds 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.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Yardbirds"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Matthew Frank"],"dc:creator":["Brewer, Joshua A"],"dc:date.available":["2015-07-10T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Novel-length fictions, when at their best, deeply complicate themes, characters, events or situations using the form’s lengthy narrative arc. Yardbirds aims to employ the long narrative arc to engage a fictional west Arkansas mountain community, Ink, and the contemporary post-mill economy evoked. Yardbirds 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. Yardbirds 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.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/54"],"dc:subject":["Fiction","Other American Studies"],"dc:title":["Yardbirds"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Fine Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:34Z"}