Oral Presentations
Kept Things: Symbols and Identity in Narrative Nonfiction
Presentation Type
Presentation
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Erin Saldin
Faculty Mentor’s Department
English/Davidson Honors College
Abstract / Artist's Statement
The things that occupy our lives tell human stories. They often go beyond literal interpretation, leaving space for places, people, desires, dreams, and ideologies to be signified and examined. Personal history is the most well-traveled source of inspiration, and it provides significant, meaningful symbols for the concepts I’m engaging with in my newest collection. My project, titled “Kept Things”, is a collection of three nonfiction pieces examining why and how things are kept, lost, and discarded, whether we have a choice in the matter or not. The significance of symbolic items to identity and memory acts as a through-line between each piece. These personal essays engage with the loss of a family home, hard sibling relationships, and how religion, love, and trauma interact. Themes of spirituality, family, and loss have appeared repeatedly in my writing, and placing them in the material world through material object associations allows for a deeper understanding of why symbols mean what they do, and why it can be so hard to let go. Sections of these pieces will be presented at a public reading, and the connective tissue of other texts and experiences will enter into conversation with each work in brief introductions. The readings will be supplemented by referential photographs for visual aids.
Category
Visual and Performing Arts (including Creative Writing)
Kept Things: Symbols and Identity in Narrative Nonfiction
UC 326
The things that occupy our lives tell human stories. They often go beyond literal interpretation, leaving space for places, people, desires, dreams, and ideologies to be signified and examined. Personal history is the most well-traveled source of inspiration, and it provides significant, meaningful symbols for the concepts I’m engaging with in my newest collection. My project, titled “Kept Things”, is a collection of three nonfiction pieces examining why and how things are kept, lost, and discarded, whether we have a choice in the matter or not. The significance of symbolic items to identity and memory acts as a through-line between each piece. These personal essays engage with the loss of a family home, hard sibling relationships, and how religion, love, and trauma interact. Themes of spirituality, family, and loss have appeared repeatedly in my writing, and placing them in the material world through material object associations allows for a deeper understanding of why symbols mean what they do, and why it can be so hard to let go. Sections of these pieces will be presented at a public reading, and the connective tissue of other texts and experiences will enter into conversation with each work in brief introductions. The readings will be supplemented by referential photographs for visual aids.