The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop

242 Pages·2014·1.232 MB·English

by  Anglus Cleghorn, Jonathan Ellis

The Cambridge Companion to
Elizabeth Bishop
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 owing 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 to Elizabeth Bishop engages with key debates surrounding the
interpretation and reception of Bishop’s published and unpublished writing in
relation to questions of biography, the natural world, and politics. Individual
chapters focus on well-known texts such as North & South, Questions of Travel ,
and G eography III , while offering fresh readings of the signii cance of Nova
Scotia, Massachusetts, and Brazil to Bishop’s life and work. With a chronology
and guide to further reading, 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.
Angus Cleghorn is professor of English and Liberal Studies at Seneca College,
Toronto. Since 2004, he has served as the editor of the E lizabeth Bishop Bulletin
for the Elizabeth Bishop Society. He has published articles on Bishop and
Wallace Stevens, as well as the book W allace Stevens’ Poetics: The Neglected
Rhetoric (2000); guest-edited two issues of the W allace Stevens Journal (1999,
2006); and co-edited the volume Elizabeth Bishop in the Twenty-First Century:
Reading the New Editions (2012).
Jonathan Ellis is senior lecturer in American Literature at the University of
Shefi eld, England. He is the author of A rt and Memory in the Work of Elizabeth
Bishop (2006), as well as articles on Michael Donaghy, Paul Muldoon, Sylvia
Plath, and Anne Stevenson. His next book, for which he received a British
Academy Research Development Award in 2008, is on twentieth-century letter
writing. He is currently editing a collection of essays on poets’ letters, Letter
Writing Among Poets: From William Wordsworth to Elizabeth Bishop .
A complete list of books in the series is at the back of this book.
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THE CAMBRIDGE
COMPANION TO
ELIZABETH BISHOP
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THE CAMBRIDGE
COMPANION TO
E L I Z A B E T H B I S H O P
Edited by
ANGUS CLEGHORN
Seneca College
JONATHAN ELLIS
University of Shefi eld

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no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
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First published 2 014
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cleghorn, Angus J. and Ellis, Jonathan S.
The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop / Angus Cleghorn, Seneca College;
Jonathan Ellis, University of Shefi eld.
pages cm. – (Cambridge Companions to Literature)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-02940-8 (hardback) –
ISBN 978-1-107-67254-3 (pbk.)
1. Bishop, Elizabeth, 1911–1979 – Criticism and interpretation. I. Cleghorn,
Angus, 1966– II. Ellis, Jonathan, 1975– III. Title.
PS3503.I785Z59 2014
811′.54–dc23 2 013027355
ISBN 9 78-1-107-02940-8 Hardback
I SBN 9 78-1-107-67254-3 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs
for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not
guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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CONTENTS
List of Figures page ix
List of Contributors x i
Acknowledgments x v
Note on Abbreviations x vii
Chronology x ix
Introduction: North a nd South 1
Angus Cleghorn and Jonathan Ellis
Part I Contexts and Issues
1 B ishop and Biography 2 1
Thomas Travisano
2 B ishop, History, and Politics 3 5
Steven Gould Axelrod
3 B ishop: Race, Class, and Gender 4 9
Kirstin Hotelling Zona
4 B ishop and the Natural World 6 2
Susan Rosenbaum
5 B ishop and the Poetic Tradition 7 9
Bonnie Costello
Part II Major Works
6 I n the Village: Bishop and Nova Scotia 9 7
Sandra Barry
vii
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Contents
7 B ecoming a Poet: From North to South 1 11
Bethany Hicok
8 Home, Wherever That May Be: Poems and Prose of Brazil 1 24
Barbara Page
9 B ack to Boston: Geography III and Other Late Poems 1 41
Lloyd Schwartz
10 B ishop’s Correspondence 1 55
Siobhan Phillips
11 B ishop and Visual Art 1 69
Peggy Samuels
12 B ishop’s Posthumous Publications 1 83
Lorrie Goldensohn
Bibliography and Guide to Further Reading 1 97
Index 2 09
viii
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FIGURES
1. M ax Ernst, “L’evade/The Fugitive” (1926). page 7 6
2. L eonor Fini, “Sphinx Regina” (1946). 7 7
ix
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