Intimate Distances: A Singles Studies Approach to Literary Studies and Creative Practice
Document Type
Presentation
Date of Original Version
4-7-2022
Abstract
Recent English Ph.D. graduate Elizabeth Foulke discussed her approach to literary texts through a Singles Studies lens and will share how her own creative writing is informed by this emerging interdisciplinary field. Specifically, Elizabeth’s scholarship and creative practice explore the ways in which singleness shapes narrative patterns both in literature and in life.
The number of single people in the Unites States continues to rise, yet there is scant scholarship on singleness. As a result, singleness is often misunderstood and conflated with loneliness and cast as one side of the false binary: partnered/alone. Elizabeth’s scholarship reframes and reimagines singleness as a mode of being that helps us to recognize the spectrum of emotional closeness and distance that people, regardless of their relationship status, participate in across a range of relationships.