Publication Date

Spring 2020

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Dale Rigby (Director), Jessica Folk, and Wes Berry

Degree Program

Department of English

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

The Memorialist is a work of creative nonfiction. In this long-form essay, the author digests the memories and secondhand stories unearthed while exploring the junked, rusted, and wrecked life of an eccentric uncle who was preceded in death by his sister, the author’s mother. Through its associative and slippery structure, it follows the author as she untangles two histories halted—connected, contrasting lives disrupted by death. Meditative and metaphorical, the narrative explores both the beauty and burden of death through the eulogy form in a quest to determine how to memorialize a life defined by what death leaves behind.

Disciplines

Creative Writing | English Language and Literature | Nonfiction

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