Scrounge is a poetic excavation of rural abjection and the enduring consequences of the death of the American Dream in the post-industrial Midwest. Drawing from Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, the collection explores life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where generations have witnessed the slow, ongoing decomposition of a dream that never fully disappears—a corpse that haunts rather than vanishes. The material remnants of this corpse are visible in the region’s shuttered factories, opioid-ravaged bodies, and foreclosed homes, while its immaterial form lingers in the unrelenting cultural myth that hard work guarantees prosperity. Ultimately, Scrounge is both an autopsy and an elegy—an autopsy on the corpse of the American Dream and an elegy for the remarkable lives that persist in its absence. While these poems cannot change the material conditions that created them, they serve as a testament to the resilience of Midwesterners and an invitation for those who live in this liminal space to authorize themselves to create meaning beyond the broken promises of a forgotten system.
","abstract_html":"<p><em>Scrounge</em> is a poetic excavation of rural abjection and the enduring consequences of the death of the American Dream in the post-industrial Midwest. Drawing from Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, the collection explores life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where generations have witnessed the slow, ongoing decomposition of a dream that never fully disappears—a corpse that haunts rather than vanishes. The material remnants of this corpse are visible in the region’s shuttered factories, opioid-ravaged bodies, and foreclosed homes, while its immaterial form lingers in the unrelenting cultural myth that hard work guarantees prosperity. Ultimately, <em>Scrounge</em> is both an autopsy and an elegy—an autopsy on the corpse of the American Dream and an elegy for the remarkable lives that persist in its absence. While these poems cannot change the material conditions that created them, they serve as a testament to the resilience of Midwesterners and an invitation for those who live in this liminal space to authorize themselves to create meaning beyond the broken promises of a forgotten system.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Watanen, Alexander J"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Patricia Killelea"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2025-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:24:36Z","subjects":["Upper Peninsula","Midwest","Rural Abjection","American Dream","Generational Poverty","Drug Addiction","Suicidality","Ethnography","Post-Industrial Decay","Poetry"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/884","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Patricia Killelea"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Watanen, Alexander J"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2030-03-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"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":["Upper Peninsula","Midwest","Rural Abjection","American Dream","Generational Poverty","Drug Addiction","Suicidality","Ethnography","Post-Industrial Decay","Poetry"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/884"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Scrounge is a poetic excavation of rural abjection and the enduring consequences of the death of the American Dream in the post-industrial Midwest. Drawing from Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, the collection explores life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where generations have witnessed the slow, ongoing decomposition of a dream that never fully disappears—a corpse that haunts rather than vanishes. The material remnants of this corpse are visible in the region’s shuttered factories, opioid-ravaged bodies, and foreclosed homes, while its immaterial form lingers in the unrelenting cultural myth that hard work guarantees prosperity. Ultimately, Scrounge is both an autopsy and an elegy—an autopsy on the corpse of the American Dream and an elegy for the remarkable lives that persist in its absence. While these poems cannot change the material conditions that created them, they serve as a testament to the resilience of Midwesterners and an invitation for those who live in this liminal space to authorize themselves to create meaning beyond the broken promises of a forgotten system.
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