Graduation Year
2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Granting Department
English
Major Professor
Sara Munson Deats, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Lagretta Lenker, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Susan Mooney, Ph.D.
Keywords
Drama, Narrative, Poetry, Middle-aged men, American Dream
Abstract
In this thesis, Kochman examines the textual references to poetry in contemporary playwright Tracy Letts's "Man from Nebraska," "August: Osage County," and "Superior Donuts" and explores how specific references function as a "poetic exchange" between the protagonists and the respective agents of change or moral touchstones in each play and how these "poetic exchanges" suggest a diminishment or elevation of the intrinsic value of art -- specifically, poetry -- as a force for personal and cultural renewal. While Letts's writing is hardly "poetic" and his structure closer to "narrative," he focuses on "the repressed" - both emotionally and socially --and the redeeming qualities of poetry. Kochman argues that Letts's dramatic works do not merely challenge the gaps, ruptures, and contradictions in the "master narratives" of Western culture, but also suggest an alternative to the traditional American "narrative" focused on the individual by advocating a "poetic perspective" centered on the community. This perspective urges a shift from a rigid, linear, individual-goal oriented principle (as depicted in "August: Osage County" toward a principle of flexibility, unity, and synthesis (as advocated in "Man from Nebraska" and "Superior Donuts").
Scholar Commons Citation
Kochman, Deborah Ann, "How to Get from Here to There: Poetic Connections in Tracy Letts's "Man from Nebraska," "August: Osage County," and "Superior Donuts."" (2011). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/3187
