Abstract
The Indoorsman is a memoir in essays depicting the experience of a Puerto Rican growing up right on the cusp of the analog and digital worlds. The information age transformed his insular island life, granting access to other worlds from the comfort of his computer, however, it also led to a chronic addiction he is constantly rehabilitating. On these islands of enchantment, the writer grapples with the seductive nature of the internet and its encroachment on everyday life. The tropical cyborg that emerges exists in between worlds, navigating online and offline spaces, Puerto Rico, USA, monolingual and bilingual environments, degrowth/hypercapitalism, urbanism/ruralism, indoors/outdoors. The collection centers identity, personas, integration, isolation, assimilation, media literacy, ecocriticism, surfing the webs of contemporary life logged on and off. The events take place in the nineties, before and after dialup access, all the way to present day interfacing with natural landscapes and virtual worlds. Equal parts incisive, sardonic, romantic, and irreverent, The Indoorsman is a living, evolving creative/critical text that will exist as a physical book and a digital humanities project. It bends genre, weaves disciplines and plays with multimedia, delineating the struggle of decolonization and relapses of its protagonist on this complex world.
Committee Chair
Abram Van Engen
Committee Members
Kathleen Finneran, Edward McPherson, Christopher Schaberg
Degree
Master of Fine Arts in Writing (MFAW)
Author's Department
English, Writing (The Writing Program)
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
Spring 5-9-2025
Language
English (en)
Recommended Citation
Sanjenis Gutierrez, Fernando, "The Indoorsman" (2025). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 3641.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/3641