Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil and After: A Poetic Career Transformed

The life and career of American poet and writer Elizabeth Bishop falls into two distinct segments: the pre-Brazil years and the Brazil years and beyond. A creature of displacement from childhood, Bishop traveled to Brazil at the age of 40 for a two-week trip and unexpectedly stayed for most of the next two decades, a sojourn that marked her work indelibly. This study explores how Bishop’s personal and literary experience in Brazil influenced her work culturally, historically, and linguistically, while she was in Brazil and following her return to the United States. Focusing on the “Brazilian” characteristics of Bishop’s work as well as some of the major poems she composed before settling in Brazil, this volume offers fresh perspective on one of the 20th century’s most celebrated writers.