Solastalgia Público

Abstract

The word solastalgia is a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the
Greek root - algia (pain). Coined by Glenn Albrecht in 2004, it refers to "the pain
experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves
is under immediate assault . . . a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at
'home.'" This is a collection of poetry that reflects on the nature of place, notions of
"home," and how they interact with the development of self. The postmodern world is an
irreparably fragmented social space, leaving us with a blankness, a white noise of
undefined territory. This is the creative space that my poetry attempts to fill, exploring
notions of "place" in both the physical and the neurological sense. Solastalgia grapples
with questions of self-contradictory spaces, and what happens when the self enters these
spaces. These kinds of spaces become particularly poignant when dealing with loss,
when dealing with the rejection of one's own self. How does one move on when one's
selfhood has been rejected? My collection attempts to explore this question while both
retaining and further developing a hopeful and powerful sense of self. The poet Derek
Walcott said, "We are Crusoes: as poets…we survey islands, and we feel they belong to
us-not in a bad, godlike manner, but with that sense of exhilaration, of creative
possession. The other side is the despair of Crusoe, the despair of always being alone.
That is our true condition as writers." With my collection of poetry, I want to explore
the paradox of this "condition," how place can simultaneously exhilarate and isolate, and
how through writing I try to define both myself and the places I occupy.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

3. Preface
4. Here Is a Place
5. Out, Out
6. Creation Mythology
7. Zoetrope
8. Cave Drawings
9. Crack of Dawn
10. Playhouse
11. Carpal Tunnel
12. In the Right Places (With the Right People)
13. Weird Animal
14. Solastalgia
15. Afternoon
16. Intercoastal Clavicle
17. Ad Interim
18. Restitution Telescope
19. Flight Plans
20. Silver, Gold
21. Nuclide Deviation
22. Roadkill Corollary
23. Long Distance Aneurysm
24. Freeway
25. Aviary
26. Seasonal Offerings
27. Worst Subject
28. Strapping Myself to the Ceiling
29. Visiting
30. Spilt Milk
31. Ink Mouth
32. What Happens?
33. Science
34. Syncytium
35. Fallout
36. Spawn Song
37. It's All Happening
38. Fractional Bloom
39. Dual
40. Recipe
41. Scrapbook
42. Landing Site
43. After the Fall
44. Au Contrition
45. Second Beach
46. How to Be You
47. How to Live in a Head-Shaped Home
48. Post-Script

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Emory College
Department	English and Creative Writing
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Fine Arts
Palavra-chave	poetry solastalgia
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Covey, Bruce, Emory University
Committee Members	Grimsley, Jim, Emory University Lewis, Amanda Paige, Emory University Young, Kevin, Emory University

Última modificação

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	Solastalgia ()	2018-08-28 13:24:44 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions