Date of Award
12-31-2021
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
English/Creative Writing
First Advisor
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram
Second Advisor
Jill McDonough
Third Advisor
Louise Penner
Abstract
Afflictionary, Defining Disability and Chronic Illness Through Poetic Dictionary Entries is a poetry collection that uses the format of a dictionary to explore individualized experiences of both medical and non-medical words. The definitions and reference quotes that come before the poems come from the Oxford English Dictionary and various medical journals. The quotes act as a prompt or framework that helped shape the personal entries. They may echo the content in the poems, be placed in opposition, or complicate our understanding of the word. Some of the words list multiple years of personal entries which shows the chronic and recurrent nature of that word in the speaker’s journey with chronic illness and disability. By placing formal definitions alongside the personal experiences these experiences become legitimized and help define disability and chronic illness to readers who may not understand these aspects of identity.
Recommended Citation
Chernoch, Jaime, "Afflictionary: Defining Disability and Chronic Illness Through Poetic Dictionary Entries" (2021). Graduate Masters Theses. 715.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/masters_theses/715