Title

Precarious

Date of Degree

6-2023

Document Type

Capstone Project

Degree Name

M.A.

Program

Biography and Memoir

Advisor

Jason Tougaw

Subject Categories

American Material Culture | American Popular Culture | Ceramic Arts | Fine Arts | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Nonfiction | Sculpture | Women's Studies

Keywords

Memoir, coming-of-age, LGBT, American South, material culture, porcelain

Abstract

In Precarious, a coming-of-age memoir set in Missouri’s Ozarks, a teenage Sumner works as a waitress in a country-western themed bar where she meets figures of American giftware fame. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the southern town’s tourism was driven by the giftware company’s headquarters and religious theme park that features a chapel boasting millions of visitors. Through her relationship with the art and the people behind it, Sumner develops a kind of appreciation with lasting effects.

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