ORDINARY DEVOTION
Date Available
5-2-2020
Year of Publication
2018
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Document Type
Master's Thesis
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
English
First Advisor
Erik Reece
Abstract
Ordinary Devotion is a collection of essays that follows the narrator on a journey through different continents, countries, states, and cities in a search to find a place to settle and call home. The central questions interrogated include: what is home and what do we inherit from our homes? What does it mean to leave or to stay, and how can we connect with the history of a place and the problems individuals and cultures inherit from a place.
Through lyric essay, travel essay, natural history, memoir, and reportage, the essays are also an homage to the art of paying attention to the landscape of nature, politics, and people that surround our lives. It grapples with racism, sexism, ownership and debt, environmental destruction and land use, the concept of wilderness, tourism, curiosities, obsessions, romantic relationships, and personal journeys. In each essay, place is a central character that informs and pushes the narrative forward.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2018.165
Recommended Citation
Gaffney, Austyn, "ORDINARY DEVOTION" (2018). Theses and Dissertations--English. 69.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/69
