The Ornithology of Enough
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Weller Thompson, Kathryn
Issue Date
2024-05-20
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
School of Letters , School of Letters Thesis 2024 , University of the South, Memory, Enough
Alternative Title
Abstract
The thesis itself, which I have titled The Ornithology of Enough, started with an idea I had when I began the program, and I have been writing toward it over my years on The Mountain. First, it is a hybrid piece: non-fiction prose, poetry, and a mix of both. Sewanee did not make me choose between the two, so I have taken advantage of both genres. I thought it would be a memoir that would cover the time from when my grandparents were killed when I was nine all the way through my divorce in my thirties, an exploration of memory, and it does do that, but over the years that I
have been writing, into this space, it has grown and changed. Birds have become a major motif in my writing as has my exploration of what it means to be enough. This idea of “enough” started in the questions about my marriage: Why wasn’t I good enough? What else could I have done? How could I have been different? These questions extended back into my childhood and then forward into now, as a mother, a daughter, a teacher, a friend and really as a human being in this world. I have discovered that that is the question one of the major questions I explore in my writing, and this thesis has brought it into focus for me.
Description
Citation
Publisher
University of the South