Fair Copy

• Other Authors: Stafford, Rebecca Hazelton (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: English literature; America > Literatures; Composition (Language arts)
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-7235

Drawing off my own experiences with marriage, my dissertation, Fair Copy, explores marriage as an identity for a contemporary American woman. The dissertation is divided into three sections that loosely correspond to the categories of girlhood, courtship, and marriage. Yet these categories are revealed to be inaccurate; drawing the line between each is increasingly difficult, especially as poems "talk" from one section to another. This is further complicated by the fact that the narrator has been divorced; poems dealing with the first marriage and its failure are actually in the "courtship" section, not the "marriage" section. Even the lines between one marriage and another are not firmly drawn, as the man who will be the second husband is also in the courtship section, in the poem, [He is alive, this morning '], in which "no one (everyone) knew we were, /secretly, fucking/." The manuscript asks how a woman can reconcile her place in a society where she is a, "Colorless princess with conical hat,/" who must "assemble your ensemble to the virginal standard '/," if her experience has been that of a "yes girl" who "had such fun I can't/say I remember." === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Spring Semester, 2010. === February 3, 2010. === Includes bibliographical references. === David Kirby, Professor Directing Dissertation; Amanda Porterfield, University Representative; Margaret Kennedy Hanson, Committee Member; Andrew Epstein, Committee Member.