Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0533-7342

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

2026

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

First Advisor

Lee Roripaugh

Abstract

Mutilation: Charting the Flesh is a book-length collection of poems in a variety of intentionally constructed forms that explore and ask questions about body, transition, and names. Mutilation is separated into three sections along with a prologue and epilogue. The prologue questions the use of metaphor and poetic practice in its usefulness to explain and express experiences. The epilogue considers how some transformations are celebrated (like the butterfly’s) and how others are scrutinized or ridiculed (mine). In the three sections, I consider surgery, naming, identification documents, and the tensions that arise when internalizing the social consequences of divergent gender practices within the medical and legal institutions that control surgery and identification. Misgendering, pronouns, and deadnames in relation to the body and its perceptions by others come into the fold and become instrumental in the exploration of autonomy, social relations, and the relationship of self to the body. In individual poems, I choose forms reacting or relating to the content in an attempt to develop poems the way the self, gender, and the body are constructed, working with lines, space, and shapes. Trans poetry is vital to trans survival as a medium that allows the poet and readers to embrace hope, home, and autonomy.

Subject Categories

English Language and Literature | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Queer Studies

Keywords

dysphoria, gender, mutilation, transition

Number of Pages

79

Publisher

University of South Dakota

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Available for download on Thursday, May 18, 2028

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