Despite This Pearl

• Other Authors: Neff, Carissa (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: English literature; English language
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-7203

Despite This Pearl is a memoir inspired by the incidental discovery of a brain tumor. Living with the constant possibility, the constant probability, of the tumor growing and one day requiring surgical removal incites the author to explore what it means to be alive and to contemplate what might be lost through future surgery, allowing rumination on myriad themes such as memory, place, love, marriage, family, education, health, and the meaning behind our singular life experiences. As the book progresses, often unfolding associatively, like a dream, like thought itself, we follow the author on a lyrical trajectory from discovery of the tumor, backward and forward through pivotal life events and critical moments that have formulated the author's experiences, thoughts, and perspectives'the author's brain. Motifs and miscellany borrowed from neurology and natural history inform the text and work to reflect the author's experience. In this way, the memoir becomes a meditation on what sustains, on the fear of forgetting as much as remembering, and on the significance of the things we lose as much as the things we carry. === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Spring Semester, 2010. === March 5, 2010. === Includes bibliographical references. === Diane Roberts, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Bob Shacochis, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Ernest Rehder, University Representative; Julianna Baggott, Committee Member; Ned Stuckey-French, Committee Member.