Inventory of the gone, 2021

Item — Call Number: MU Thesis Ear

Identifier: b7930360

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The collection consists of theses written by students enrolled in the Monmouth University graduate English program. The holdings are primarily bound print documents that were submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the Master of Arts or Master of Fine Arts degrees.

From the Collection:

Students become eligible to pursue the Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree if they have obtained a Master of Arts (M.A.) in English from Monmouth University and demonstrate a proficiency for creative writing through a thesis or equivalent work.

From the Collection:

After completing their 30-credit M.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration, Monmouth’s M.F.A. students take an additional 18 credits of intensive creative writing study that includes the completion of a book-length Creative Thesis.

From the Collection:

During the fall 2022 semester (in instances where the requisite waivers were received from consenting student authors), the Monmouth University Library, together with the University's Graduate School and Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences, began providing open access to select full-text digital versions of current theses and dissertations through links to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global website in the Library's Online Public Access Catalog. Links to these open access digital publications can also be found in the "External Documents" section under any conforming titles that are listed among the holdings itemized in the collection inventory for this finding aid.

Dates

Creation: 2021

Creator

Earl, Faith V. (Faith Victoria) (1997- ) (Author, Person)
Moscaliuc, Mihaela, 1972- (Thesis advisor, Person)

Language of Materials

From the Collection:

Unless noted otherwise at the resource component level, the language of the collection materials is English.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use. Access is by appointment only.

Access to the collection is confined to the Monmouth University Library and is subject to patron policies approved by the Monmouth University Library.

Collection holdings may not be borrowed through interlibrary loan.

Research appointments are scheduled by the Monmouth University Library Archives Collections Manager (723-923-4526). A minimum of three days advance notice is required to arrange a research appointment for access to the collection.

Patrons must complete a Researcher Registration Form and provide appropriate identification to gain access to the collection holdings. Copies of these documents will be kept on file at the Monmouth University Library.

Extent

1 Items (print book) : 53 pages ; 8.5 x 11.0 inches (28 cm).

Additional Description

Introduction [excerpt]

Inventory of the Gone became a meditation-- or, more honestly, an obsession-- with the ever-complicated human experience of and relationship to loss. Loss takes many forms in this collection from death, to losing who you knew somebody to be to addiction, to losing the self and others to mental and physical illness, to the loss experienced through change, to the severing of relationships, etc. These poems attempt to find the right images and right words necessary to make the isolating experience of loss feel more tangible and less alienating. In this way, the collection as a whole seeks to make sense of-- or at the very least communicate-- these rather indescribable experiences and feelings that truly can only take form in a medium like poetry....

The poems in this collection aim to read as confessional, personal, and intimate in a way that makes the reader feel befriended and trusted by the speakers of different poems. These different speakers take the reading into the nitty-gritty dark corners of the human experience to places like graveyards, underneath the ocean, the hospital-- even the side of the road-- to bring the reader to different painful emotions that we all crave to touch every now and then, the same way we poke at a bruise or suck air through and aching cavity. The obsession with loss in this collection manifests in the recurring themes of the physical body and the different rituals and attitudes from around the world surrounding death. The images and languages used throughout the collection are meant to grab hold of and nail the reader to the poem's sentiments and story....

Inventory of the Gone utilizes the lyrical and narrative modes and is largely grounded in metaphor and figurative language in order to communicate the different speaker's wounds, and death as a theme haunts the collection as the aftermath of these wounds. My hope is that this collection is cathartic for the reader-- whether it be because they can relate to a poem's content or can find themselves in the poem's sentiments. I also hope that this collection brings the reader closer to feelings and fears that it is our human nature to avoid, such as the innate fear of death and, in this way-- to re-quote [Salman] Rushdie-- "start arguments, shape the world, and stop it from going to sleep."

Partial Contents

Introduction: Inventory of the gone -- Works cited -- Seeking remedy -- When you ask me how you can help -- Reflection -- Best friend as Sisyphus -- Our front yard, fifteen years ago -- A woman like July -- Amygdala -- Inventory of desires -- The offering -- The body's longing -- La petite mort -- Once again, she steals away -- Pink wine blues -- Another kind of paradise -- This is how to survive him: -- The year after -- Bird-scattered -- Roadkill -- Interstate elegy -- Revenge -- The ride home -- My judgement day -- How to survive death -- Ad for mycustombobblehead.com -- Ella Louisa Tucker: Exhumation -- Sati: If a woman wants to burn, let her burn -- Feast of the dead -- The art of rotting -- Autumn: A lesson in gain -- Downstream -- Abandoner's shiva -- The mother wound -- Dismemberment -- Exhumation -- Grandmother's zuihitsu -- The coward -- Break down -- Notes -- Acknowledgements.