Spirals of (re)knowing: an analysis of the construction of place/space in women’s communities through ceremony in Joy Harjo's poetry

Graduation Date

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Other

Program

Thesis (M.A.)--Humboldt State University, English, Literature, 2014

Committee Chair Name

Barbara Curiel

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Billie Holiday, Time, Consciousness, Feminism, Music, Spiral, Ceremony, Humboldt State University -- Theses -- English, Poetry, Language, Poem, Narrative therapy, Communities, Indian, Strange Fruit, Harjo, Ritual, Native, Allen, Women, Paula Gunn

Abstract

My Master's Project explores the construction of place/space in Harjo's poems as a form of ceremony. I argue that Harjo utilizes language as a tool to construct the place/space necessary for her as well as her communities to engage in discourse with each other in resistance. The following elements of ceremony, time/memory and song/dance/drum are linked together with place/space through Harjo's continued membership and contribution to her communities of women of color. Ultimately, I argue Harjo uses the strength she gains from her membership and contribution to her communities to confront and transform from her encounter with cultural knowing. I do so through a close analysis of the connections between Harjo, Harjo's persona as speaker, and her communities in her poems "Anchorage," "Call it Fear," and "Strange Fruit."

https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/hq37vq91b

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