The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop

This Companion engages with key debates surrounding the interpretation and reception of Elizabeth Bishop's published and unpublished writing.

Angus Cleghorn (Edited by), Jonathan Ellis (Edited by)

9781107672543, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 February 2014

242 pages, 2 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.34 kg

Elizabeth Bishop is increasingly recognized as one of the twentieth century's most important and original poets. Initially celebrated for the minute detail of her descriptions, what John Ashbery memorably called her 'thinginess', Bishop's reputation has risen dramatically since her death, in part due to the publication of new work, including letters, stories, and visual art, as well as a controversial volume of uncollected poems, drafts, and fragments. This Companion engages with key debates surrounding the interpretation and reception of Bishop's writing in relation to questions of biography, the natural world and politics. Individual chapters focus on texts such as North and South, Questions of Travel, and Geography III, while offering fresh readings of the significance of Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, and Brazil to Bishop's life and work. This volume explores the full range of Bishop's artistic achievements and the extent to which the posthumous publications have contributed to her enduring popularity.

Introduction Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis
Part I. Contexts and Issues: 1. Bishop and biography Thomas Travisano
2. Bishop, history, and politics Steven Gould Axelrod
3. Bishop: race, class, and gender Kirstin Hotelling Zona
4. Bishop and the natural world Susan Rosenbaum
5. Bishop and the poetic tradition Bonnie Costello
Part II. Major Works: 6. In the village: Bishop and Nova Scotia Sandra Barry
7. Becoming a poet: from north to south Bethany Hicok
8. Home, wherever that may be: poems and prose of Brazil Barbara Page
9. Back to Boston: Geography III and other late poems Lloyd Schwartz
10. Bishop's correspondence Siobhan Phillips
11. Bishop and visual art Peggy Samuels
12. Bishop's posthumous publications Lorrie Goldensohn
Bibliography and guide to further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]