Former Queen of the Amazons

• Other Authors: Vyas, Avni (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Creative writing
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-4617

The poems in Former Queen of the Amazons comprise the speakers' garbled negotiation of the world around them and the clamoring voices they possess. Written within a matrix of culture, woman-hood, and persona, the poems holler with chaos, they demand to be heard, and at the same time, the speaker invites the reader into this play. In Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto," Haraway claims the idea of the cyborg is "blasphemous," having no origin story. Rather, the cyborg reshapes itself to adapt to any surroundings. Similarly, the collection and its various speakers explore "blasphemy" in order to negotiate the self, through a writer sampling life in acrid, ludicrous, and heartfelt lurches. Consider the aim of popular culture to reflect and distort the lives and faces of its consumers. This collection takes advantage of these appeals—The Grinch, Mr. Potato Head, Calvin and Hobbes, and video game culture hurtle headlong to hyperbolize and glorify the range of human emotion. With the play of maudlin and ecstatic, the speakers stretch their capacities, because they are not the creatures of popular culture—they are warped versions of a writer in a fun-house mirror. The images range from a little strange to wholly surreal, but come from a deeply felt center. It is this center, this heart, which remains constant, while the landscape hurtles and upends. === A Thesis submitted to the English Department in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts. === Summer Semester 2010. === March 26, 2010. === poetry, creative writing === Includes bibliographical references. === David Kirby, Professor Directing Thesis; Erin Belieu, Committee Member; Barbara Hamby, Committee Member; James Kimbrell, Committee Member.