Ikce kin el Itokeca: Changed Into the Wild. (Original writing);

• Main Author: Brooke, Paul C
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 1995
• Subjects: American literature|Cultural anthropology; Keller; koyukon; Alaska
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9611042

This creative writing poetry dissertation consists of eight sections with 35 individual poems. Each thematic section is divided by a Koyukon riddle-poem, a form borrowed from the Koyukon people of western Alaska. The poems in Ikce kin el Itokeca: Changed into the Wild represent a variety of forms ranging from one page free verse poems to a 26 page poem in the reconstructed voice of a Lakota woman. All of these poems are influenced by eco-conscious thought processes, scientific study, the study of other cultures, or the study of the personal. These considerations form the basis for the transformational moment in the poetry. The transformational change occurs when the details and experiences construct a new perception for the poet. These perceptions are based on finding personal meaning in various cultures and in wild nature. The poems in Section I (five poems) use wild nature as a place to uncover meaning about life and death. Section II (five poems) deals with the search of the self in love, environmental ideology, and creativity. Section III (six poems) addresses human roles in the extinction and preservation of animal species. Section IV (three poems) reflects the author's time spent in northern Alaska living in close proximity with native people. Section V (five poems) uses wild places of the author's youth and adulthood to show his eco-conscious development. Section VI (three poems) develops longer narrative poems that deal with discovering the feminine. Section VII (two poems) adapts the oral stories of Anne Keller, a Sioux woman, to construct her history and life in poem form. Section VIII (six poems) shows further eco-conscious development by utilizing translation of language, intensive scientific study, and the act of defamilarization to accentuate the theme of transformation in wild nature.