Elizabeth Bishop in Context

This volume explores Elizabeth Bishop's life, work, and influence, featuring essays by a diverse team of authors. It examines her biographical and literary origins, her relationships with nature, music, psychoanalysis, and religion, and the impact of twentieth-century history and politics on her life writing.

Format: Hardback
Length: 400 pages
Publication date: 26 August 2021
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Elizabeth Bishop is increasingly recognized as one of the most original writers of the 20th century. This comprehensive volume, consisting of thirty-five groundbreaking essays by an international team of authors, including biographers, literary critics, poets, and translators, delves into the biographical and literary origins of Bishop's originality. From her formative upbringing in New England and Nova Scotia to her long residences in New York, France, Florida, and Brazil, the book explores the various factors that shaped her unique artistic vision.

The analysis of Bishop's poetry, prose, letters, translations, and visual art is conducted in turn, followed by in-depth studies of literary movements such as surrealism and modernism that greatly influenced her artistic development. The book also explores Bishop's profound encounters with nature, music, psychoanalysis, and religion, as well as her interest in dreams and humor.

Furthermore, the essays investigate the impact of 20th-century history and politics on Bishop's life writing, and what it means to read Bishop through the lenses of eco-criticism, postcolonial theory, and queer studies. By examining her work from multiple perspectives, this volume offers a comprehensive and insightful exploration of Elizabeth Bishop's extraordinary literary legacy.

Weight: 856g
Dimension: 160 x 254 x 35 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108495974