For my part, I know of no river called ocean : a queer memoir on motherhood and mythology

For My Part, I Know of No River Called Ocean is a queer memoir told in parts, engaging themes of: motherhood, lineage, coming-of-age, cultural identity, translation, domestic violence, and structural oppression including: racism, patriarchy, ableism, queerphobia, transphobia, physiologic, and psychiatric pathologization. This thesis also engages directly with the reliability of the autobiographical narrator in creative non-fiction, and posits automythologization as a means of bringing truth and verifiable fact into close orbit where they may seem distant. This thesis employs devices, such as: leitmotif, repetition, circular structure, ecological and cosmogonical references that are hallmarks of mythological retellings within a braided narrative that includes the reflective self-reference that has become heavily associated with modern memoir, in an attempt to render the technical aim of automythologization aesthetically. The first two sections, “Chronology,” and “Cartography,” contextualize the action of and within the memoir historically and geographically, and draw upon first-hand accounts of the history that is shared by my parents and I. Additionally, these sections draw upon a number of genealogical documents as well as reference material related to setting and character. The third section, “Ceremony,” takes as its subject the content of an experience of ‘past life regression,’ and incorporates it into the meaning-making of the text. The fourth section, “Potamology,” seeks to render relationships, especially those that emerge in trauma, in ecological terms. The fifth section, “Content Note,” seeks to offer the reader a chance to opt in or out of depictions of violence in scene, highlighting the importance of autonomy in content engagement. The sixth section, “Mythology,” a reimagining of the myth of Chiron through depictions of the rape of his mother, Philyra, aims to unite the universal with the specific, drawing together personal and collective history and grounding it in a myth retold askew. The sections titled “Prologue,” and “Epilogue,” invite the reader to consider memoir as a telling (rather than a documenting), and rely heavily upon rhythm, repetition, and allusion to bring the text full circle in order to highlight what has changed for the reader as a result of the text.Arts, Faculty ofGraduat