Elizabeth Bishop's Poetics of Intimacy (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture, Series Number 62)

By offering a fresh look at Bishop criticism that has moved from purely formal concerns and postmodern interpretations to more recent feminist analysis, Victoria Harrison traces Bishop's career, dividing Bishop's work into three chronological periods of activity: her early work, her writing in Brazil, and her late retrospective verse. By examining letters and notebooks, Harrison unfolds the biographical events that influenced Bishop's poetic style, addressing her treatment of such topics as family relations, history, politics, war, love, sexuality, and ethnic differences. Elizabeth Bishop's Poetics of Intimacy is one of the first books to delve extensively into the Bishop archives. Making wider use of Bishop's unpublished work than any other book, Harrison explores Bishop's childhood memoirs, journals, letters, Brazilian travel prose, unfinished poems, and draft material. The reproduction of these archival materials--with revisions, cancelled lines, notes--shows a mind at work and a career in evolution. Elizabeth Bishop's Poetics Of Intimacy, A Biographical And Critical Study Of One Of The Great Poets Of This Century, Offers A Fresh Look At Bishop's Published And Unpublished Writing Over The Course Of Her Career. Informed By Pragmatic, Post-modern, And Feminist Theories, Victoria Harrison's Study Also Makes Extensive Use Of Bishop's Archives, Many Pieces Of Which Have Never Been Discussed, To Reveal The Process Of The Poet's Writing. Harrison Explores Bishop's Childhood Memoirs, Journals, Letters, Brazilian Travel Prose, Unfinished Poems, And Draft Material, Researching Dates Of Undated Material And Reproducing Bishop's Revisions, Cancellations, And Idiosyncratic Spellings. Attentiveness To The Detail Of This Archival Writing Gives Harrison A Broad Foundation For Arguing That Bishop Treats Some Of Our Largest Concerns - Family Relationships, Sexuality, War, And Cultural Differences - Within Poetry And Prose That Are Intimate But Not Self-revelatory And Daily But Never Ordinary. Elizabeth Bishop Charges The Moments Of Her Writing With The Desires, Fears, And Passions Of Her Life. By offering a fresh look at Bishop criticism that has moved from purely formal concerns and post-modern interpretations to more recent feminist analysis, Victoria Harrison traces Elizabeth Bishop's career, dividing her work into three chronological periods of activity: her early work, her writing in Brazil, and her late retrospective verse. By examining letters and notebooks, Harrison unfolds the biographical events that influenced Bishop's poetic style, addressing her treatment of such topics as family relations, history, politics, war, love, sexuality and ethnic differences. Elizabeth Bishop's Poetics of Intimacy delves extensively into the Bishop archives. Making wider use of Bishop's unpublished work, Harrison explores Bishop's childhood memoirs, journals, letters, Brazilian travel prose, unfinished poems and draft material. The reproduction of these archival materials - with revisions, cancelled lines, notes - shows a mind at work and a career in evolution.