Abstract:
ABSTRACT
THIS WOMAN’S WORK
by
© Sarah T. Knowlton 2009
Master of Arts in English
California State University, Chico
Fall 2009
The idea of gender specific roles is a common theme that modern society
wrestles with even in today’s more enlightened times. The title of my project, This
Woman’s Work, then acts on multiple levels referring to the work included in this
collection as well as to the more literal meaning of what a woman’s work is supposed to
be. The work of the woman here is not the stereotypical woman’s work of cooking and
cleaning, but that of writer, teacher and scholar.
All things are interconnected and continue to be born from past experience as
they move forward into a new existence. This mixed genre collection of poems and
creative non-fiction is no different and involves many topics that speak to each other as
each finds its own life within this space. These topics include what it means to be a
woman dealing with an expanding world of desires and expectations, as well as mining
the themes of family, politics, and nature. In its continuing journey, this collection
brushes against the fringes of larger concepts like privacy and the search for self while it
seeks to reveal truth by examining the everyday experience. It reveals the cyclic nature of
the day-to-day as well as delving into the historic nature of life as a contiguous, everevolving
story -- specifically the story of this woman’s world.
