Willful Reticence: Survivalist Strategies and the Poet’s Responsibility in Elizabeth Bishop’s Poetics
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Biographical criticism of Elizabeth Bishop tends to interpret the female poet in negative terms, as passive and as a victim, which are then linked to tragic and traumatic moments in her life. By reexamining Bishop’s reputation for reticence, this paper argues that trauma-centered interpretive practices obscure and diminish her literary contributions and professionalism. Rather than rejecting this biography-based reading altogether, this paper shifts attention to Bishop’s volitional engagement with her reputation as a taciturn female poet and her willful reticence. By rereading Bishop as a living agent, I argue that attention to Bishop’s willful reticence should foster a new critical appreciation for her work as a self-reflexive, ambitious writer. To this end, I examine Bishop’s political consciousness as represented in “12 O’Clock News” (1973) and scrutinize her poetic strategies for presenting a nuanced social critique of television news, print media, and U.S. neocolonialism in the postwar era. It is my attempt to recalibrate her reputation for reticence as a way to formulate her persona as a public poet and to emphasize her engagement with the outside world through poetry.
Abstract
Biographical criticism of Elizabeth Bishop tends to interpret the female poet in negative terms, as passive and as a victim, which are then linked to tragic and traumatic moments in her life. By reexamining Bishop’s reputation for reticence, this paper argues that trauma-centered interpretive practices obscure and diminish her literary contributions and professionalism. Rather than rejecting this biography-based reading altogether, this paper shifts attention to Bishop’s volitional engagement with her reputation as a taciturn female poet and her willful reticence. By rereading Bishop as a living agent, I argue that attention to Bishop’s willful reticence should foster a new critical appreciation for her work as a self-reflexive, ambitious writer. To this end, I examine Bishop’s political consciousness as represented in “12 O’Clock News” (1973) and scrutinize her poetic strategies for presenting a nuanced social critique of television news, print media, and U.S. neocolonialism in the postwar era. It is my attempt to recalibrate her reputation for reticence as a way to formulate her persona as a public poet and to emphasize her engagement with the outside world through poetry.
참고문헌 (16)
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- Russ, Joanna, "How to Suppress Women’s Writing" (2018), U of Texas P
- Travisano, Thomas, "Elizabeth Bishop in the 21st Century: Reading the New Editions", pp.223~238 (2012), U of Virginia P
- Travisano, Thomas., "Love Unknown : The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop" (2019), Viking
- "12 O’Clock News", The New Yorker, ~ (2023)
- Wehr, Wesley, "Elizabeth Bishop : Conversations and Class Note", The Antioch Review, 39(3), pp.319~328 (1981)