25th Annual Student Research Conference
Eli Clare and the Celebration of Queer Metamorphosis
Kelly R. Tharp♦
Prof. Martha L. Rose and Dr. Linda Seidel, Faculty Mentors
A close reading of Eli Clares Two Waters published in the 2007 collection The Marrows Telling reveals three interconnected themes that link together disability theory and the study of queer bodies. The humanness of all bodies is clear in Clares poem; it articulates that without bluntly stating that queer bodies are in many ways the same as normal/able-bodied people. The connection between bodies, specifically his marked body, and the environment is apparent. Clares body is better understood by others unlike himin many ways in it is his queer body that is the norm. His body is celebrated, queer and disabled as it is. In his poem Two Waters, Eli Clare celebrates his queer/disabled body as fully human and integrally connected to a natural (but violated) landscape. Clares poetry, as exemplified by Two Waters, portrays the metamorphosis that queer/disabled bodies go through in the acceptance of their own legitimacy.
Keywords: disability, poetry, metamorphosis, Eli Clare, embodiment, landscape, commonalities, queer
Topic(s):Disability and Society
Disability and the Arts
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 402-4
Location: OP 2210
Time: 3:15