Candidate: Amanda Rachelle Warren

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: English

Title: Ridge-Runner

Committee: Dr. William Olsen , Chair
Dr. Nancy Eimers
Dr. Daneen Wardrop
Dr. Cynthia Running-Johnson

Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
2302 Friedmann

Abstract: At the top of every ridge is a space where one’s feet can literally be on two different sides of the same mountain. Ridge-runner is a term used disparagingly in Appalachian culture for a person who attempts to bridge the gap between the world inside and outside of Appalachia. As a reference to identity, the term is a metaphor for a single person, belonging fully to neither one side nor the other. Although the term itself is almost always intended as an insult, it is somehow beautiful in the vantage point it suggests: a distance without distance, a tension of place and body, and a vast skyline in every direction. The poems in this collection try to find stable footing—or better, a ridge road running back and forth—between the two spaces.

Related Topics

Main List of Archives:
Dissertation Defenses

Current Dissertation Defenses