Date of Defense
4-17-2012
Date of Graduation
4-28-2012
Department
English
First Advisor
Nancy Eimers
Second Advisor
Elizabeth A. Bradburn
Third Advisor
Thomas Bailey, Environmental Studies
Keywords
Poetics
Abstract
My Honors Senior Thesis is centered around the art of Erasure poetics. My definition of Erasure is most concisely stated as: a process of simultaneous poetic addition and subtraction to preexisting text, which results in a product whose creation process ultimately echoes the same revision process that human beings undergo; a process by which a new and beautiful truth is both created and uncovered in a paradoxical manner. I initially endeavored to complete a simple erasure of a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie called Witnessfor the Prosecution; but was soon so inspired that I ended up creating four different project centered around erasure and 3-D poetic forms. The four projects built upon each other and also serve to represent my own creative process as well as each year of growth I underwent during my undergraduate career.
Piece 1: 'Witness for the Prosecution' - Freshman Year -altered copy of Agatha Christies' collection of short crime stories- Dell publishers, 1956
A classic interpretation of erasure.
Piece 2: 'The Anatomy Lesson' - Sophomore Year -Combination of mystery art-book about Ruebens (pages were given to me randomly) and a found 'Dodging and Burning' tool.
Using erasure as an interactive reinvention poetic structure
Piece 3: 'Everything Head' —Intoxication with Knowledge —Junior Year -Styrofoam hat manikin and text from Kateri of the Mohawks- by Marie Cecilia Buehrle. Extra addition cut-out from Favorite Selected Songs, pub. 1952.
Abandons accessible form in an excess of creative impulse, exemplifies unfinished and unstructured creativity and revision.
Piece 4: 'Bones' — Back to Basics
-Found animal (presumably deer) bones covered in text from I am a Barbarian, by
Edgar Rice Burroughs.
The 'Bones' physically represent the process of revealing the structure of creativity, language and poetry.
Recommended Citation
Schaefer, Samantha M., "Witness for the Prosecution: Erasure Poetics" (2012). Honors Theses. 2207.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/2207
Access Setting
Honors Thesis-Open Access