Homecoming: The Development of Voice in Selected Writings of W.D. Snodgrass

Abstract

This thesis posits that for W.D. Snodgrass, writing confessional poetry and autobiography is a quest to capture an autonomous voice within the literary past that he associates himself with, as well as deal with the contemporary realities of the literary marketplace. I focus on three texts?Heart?s Needle, After Experience and After-Images: Autobiographical Sketches, and how they mark Snodgrass?s development both as an individual and as a writer. While Heart?s Needle suggests a taking flight, a modest hope for a new beginning after Snodgrass?s first divorce, After Experience is more fragmented in structure. I would like to suggest that this is a strategy to overcome the constraints of the confessional voice in his poetry. After-Images is Snodgrass?s only autobiographical work in prose. In it, Snodgrass attempts to come to terms with his tumultuous relationship with his family by revisiting the events depicted in Remains, one of his most confessional works.