Role Play

Jarchow, Kimberly A (2022) Role Play. Masters thesis, Northern Arizona University.

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Abstract

This collection, titled Role Play, explores the cultural impact of queer identity and community, both historically and through the modern lens of a speaker ‘raised cisgender and straight’, while also combatting stereotypes associated with binary gender roles. It attempts to do so in two main ways: through brutal honesty, and through gratitude and grace. While the speaker discovers themselves through evolving gender and sexual identities, the collection simultaneously critiques heteronormative society for its historically unforgiving discrimination of the queer community and unrealistic expectations for concepts like ‘normalcy’ and ‘belonging’. Our queerness has violent roots, and we bloom anyway. The speaker, occasionally referred to as “the writer”, does not shy away from the reader’s belonging and relatability in the collection. The reader is taken on an emotional journey through the layers of a traumatized community; first, we see the hurt and armor, the defensive hard shell that eventually gets cracked, and the poems with softer quality, with gratitude and growth, prevail in the second half of the manuscript. This arrangement is realistic to a common trajectory for healing. The pain must be acknowledged before the growth can take its place.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Publisher’s Statement:	© Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords:	Healing; Love; Queer Community; Queer Culture; Queer History; Queer Identity
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PS American literature
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Student
Department/Unit:	Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations College of Arts and Letters > English
Date Deposited:	16 May 2023 22:25
Last Modified:	16 May 2023 22:25
URI:	https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/5887

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