Ark Shell : Archive as Sequence, Sequence as Collection

Charlesworth, Natalie Sorrell and Farley, Paul (2021) Ark Shell : Archive as Sequence, Sequence as Collection. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This PhD thesis is divided into two sections. The first section is comprised of a reflective essay (of approximately 20,000 words) that seeks to explore the process of creative practice which culminated in the second section, a collection of forty-four poems titled Ark Shell. The reflective essay aims to explore the manner in which poetry can interact with and draw inspiration from archives; these archives come in many forms including physical ruins, the UK census archive, the BBC archive and family archives (both documentary and anecdotal). It also investigates the link between poetic sequences and timelines, extrapolating from this to discuss ‘collection as sequence’. Finally, it questions the manner in which a poem or poetry collection itself can give a ‘second life’ to forgotten or marginalised archival material. The collection of poems themselves contains two short narrative sequences and two miscellanies. These miscellanies in turn contain sequences and groupings of their own which I have consciously curated and encouraged.