Skeleton Key
Abstract
Skeleton Key focuses on the relationship between an individual and family, culture, heritage, memory, and the physical body. The manuscript utilizes both verse and prose to explore how a person is defined not by their own thoughts and ideas, but of those around them – how loved ones and a biracial background define a person who is unable to define themselves. These poems use recurring characters to define a narrator; how does being a part of two larger cultural heritages affect a single person? How does that juxtaposition function not only to society, but also to the physical body itself? What are the implications of hovering between identities? How do these complications reflect femaleness? The latter half revolves around the fairytale, both Germanic and Asiatic and how historically oral traditions and tales have survived and evolved in meaning – how using this source can result in radically different ideas about race and gender.
Description
Keywords
Poetry, Family, Culture, Heritage, Folklore