Notes from Source: This thesis posits Canadian poet Anne Carson as both an inheritor and re-inventor of what is traditionally understood to be the confessional school of poetry. It suggests that “confessional poetry” refers not only to a specific period of time in American letters but is rather a reoccurring and current phenomenon. Carson’s work is first revealed to embody confessional characteristics as they relate to confession through an exploration of the confessional impulse in modernist, confessional and postconfessional poetry. Pilgrimage and the history of Christian confession are also described as methods for understanding Carson’s relationship to modern confession. Carson’s work is then positioned as containing elements of “new confession” through the examination of three major poems, including “The Glass Essay,” “The Anthropology of Water” and “Just for the Thrill: An Essay on the Difference Between Women and Men.” These poems, respectively, explore the relationship between one’s inner and outer lives, the search for justice (both human and divine), and ultimately suggest a method of understanding confession as an androgynous, rather than purely feminine or masculine, inclination. Finally, “new confession,” is defined as having the dual characteristics of placing the autobiographical self first while also employing certain mechanisms for undercutting the drama inherent in recognizing one’s relationship to history.

Further Notes: Book Title: Confession and pilgrimage in the work of Anne Carson ISBN: 9780542074042