Elizabeth Bishop The Restraints of Language [Hardcover]

This illuminating study examines Elizabeth Bishop's rhetorical strategies and the way they shape the formal and thematic movements of her poetry and stories. Unlike other recent studies of Bishop, Doreski's does not concern itself primarily with her visual imagery, but rather deals with her poetry as a series of linguistic strategies designed to create the maximum illusion of representation while resisting the romantic devices of self-revelation and solipsistic narration. Doreski argues that Bishop takes advantage of the inadequacies of language, and with a postmodern sense of limitation explores the gaps and silences narrative must bridge with the mundane, the patently inadequate, leaving an air of emotional intimacy without committing itself to the banality of full exposure. This study finds the poems and stories mutually illuminating, but while moving back and forth among her various works, acknowledges the intelligent ordering of the volumes Bishop published in her lifetime.

In illuminating the poetry, which she accomplishes with critical mastery, she has also cracked the imagistic and linguistic codes that often resist interpretation when we come to the work and lives of very fine poets....Her book offers a comprehensive and celebratory initiation. --HarvardReview

Doreski's book provides a compelling and in depth analysis of Bishop's poetic accomplishments, and her attention to Bishop's poetic aesthetic is particularly provocative. Scholars, teachers, and students will all find the book to be an essential resource for Bishop studies. --Lea Baechler,ColumbiaUniversity