Abstract
"Patologie," a collection of poems and a nonfiction essay, explores the concept of cross cultural experience in the face of human cruelties, loss, American capitalism, and cultural alienation. The thesis is composed of four parts: Dysplasia, Carcinogen, Metastasis, and Remission. The names for these parts are terminologies taken from the medical field of pathology, the science of diseases, and the poems under each part explore cultural alienation in terms of the societal connotations of those terminologies. The thesis intends to ground the readers in a unique and specific interpretation of pathology as experienced by the speaker, and it is within this specific experience that the thesis is named "Patologie," the Romanian translation of the word pathology, and refers to the origin of the word's definition deriving from the ancient Greek word "pathologia," meaning the "study of the passions."