Date of Award
Spring 4-13-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
May 2026
Department
English
College Granting Degree
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department Granting Degree
English
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Ayşe Papatya Bucak
Abstract
Tell Me What You See is a long lyric essay that explores how visual art can recover memory and enable self-discovery through ekphrasis, fragmentation, and nonlinear structure. The project uses artworks as apertures through which memory, perception, and feeling emerge. Meaning resides not in the artwork alone, but in the act of looking, (mis)reading, and remembering. Influenced by writers such as Eula Biss, Lars Horn, Maggie Nelson, Anne Carson, and others, the manuscript experiments with repetition and fractured narrative to create resonance across sections. Art becomes a mode that allows difficult material, including family, labor, addiction, and desire, to be mediated through image. By braiding nonfiction with speculative, Tell Me What You See demonstrates that visual art can offer a powerful structure for emotional truth, folding time, and transforming personal memory into a shared experience.
Recommended Citation
McDaniel, Christopher Alan, "TELL ME WHAT YOU SEE" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 321.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general/321