UO Week of Research

Ava Blake The Art of Confessions Within Poetry: How They Reflect Society
Common morals influence pieces of art, we can see this in confessional poetry. Confessional poetry is a reflection of a society and it’s ideals because a confession implies aspects that are seen as taboo and have been built by society. Poetry is inherently a mirror or society and politics. Through looking at different confessional poetry we can see commonalities. There are also trends with when the poems when made. For example, during the 1950s, a time that's regarded as being very suppressive and with media getting rapidly more influential, confessional poetry took off. Even when there lacks a bluntly stated confession, different poetic shifts hold the same social cues. This perception has a hold on many facets of life. For example, international relations political science theories suggest that society perception and expectation is what lowers threatening actions. There're patterns, regardless of time period or poem subject, that show how society's perception has a strong hold on poetry. This creates bigger implications of how not just art is affected by the perception that our society and culture gives us but every aspect of our lives.
 
Anna Mills The Power of Voice and Reclaiming Your Own
The analysis of literature and representation of identities for marginalized folk and the certain tropes, stereotypes, notions of minstrelsy, and inauthentic voices that have curated over history from dominant social groups raises importance to the creative writing spaces and platform for poets with underrepresented and misrepresented identities to find their voice and create their own narrative. The form of persona in poetry functions by means of allowing the poet to “write what they know,” and by looking at the various ways these poets shape their narrative and voice through this poetic form, we can see the disruption of harmfully imposed perceptions placed upon themselves because of their identities and see how poetry carries and amplifies their voices through accurate and authentic representation. This form of expression will not only illuminate the self-empowerment or self-reclamation end result of these poets' work but also tend to the need for creative writing expression as a way to understand ourselves and build perception amongst one another from different identity groups.
 
Madeline Fehlman Trauma As Elegy
Elegy is a form of poetry that traditionally serves as a lament for the dead. This project investigates how poets across time use elegy to tell their stories of loss and personal trauma. I will examine elegies from different time periods, from traditional elegies to those from the modern and contemporary eras. I have found that while some common characteristics persist, elegies have evolved from serving as a tribute to lost loved ones into an expression of all forms of grief. Poets may use a variety of methods to tell their stories, but they all share the same goal: evoking universal emotions while writing about personal experiences. Achieving this goal turns poetry into a cathartic experience for both writers and readers alike.

Andrew Barron Queer Violence: the disembodied homosexual persona affected by the spiritual & existential
My project explores the queer identity of various contemporary poets, including Ocean Vuong, Christopher Soto, and Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, in conflict with the spiritual world through an existential lens. With these poets in mind, my own upbringing came into question. Raised Catholic, I prayed for acceptance. I prayed for understanding. I grew into the shoes of queer-fear: the inherited anxiety of not being accepted by my family, nor God. I was far too existential at such a young age. How does a child reconcile themselves to their beliefs? This raises the greater question: how are queer poets affected by existentialism and spirituality? Through the physicality of sex, these poets practice confessional writings, subverting sullen themes by creating a dramatized envisioning of queerness by disembodying their physical self onto the page, in lush energy and grounded violence. In this way, religion and existentialism affect how queerness is embodied through poetry, perpetuated by the oppression and moralistic division of Christianity. Through careful analysis and a reflection of my own homosexual writings, I believe poets have seen some truth to religion, to God, and the art of faith. Through homoerotic poetry, I feel tethered to God. My writing is masochistic, bridging the isolation of existentialism and the otherworldliness of spirituality with dismembered bodies and the erotic, emphasizing a direct link to art as religion, and desire as religious subversion.