Elizabeth Bishop's "Brazil, January 1, 1502" and Max Jacob's "Etablissement d'une communaute au Bresil": A Study of Transformative Interpretation and Influence
The A. establishes the relation between Max Jacob's brillant poem on Brazil and Elisabeth Bishop's more politically positive response to it, convincingly arguing a greater political thrust to Bishop's poetry than is generally perceived.
Mapping Elizabeth Bishop’s “Brazil, January 1, 1502”
Scholars have yet to address the full complexities of poetic mode (epic, ekphrasis) and plurality of voice that constitute Elizabeth Bishop’s “Brazil, January 1, 1502.” To attend more fully to these complexities, this essay examines such precursors of the poem as the Cantino planisphere of 1502 and Sir Kenneth Clark’s Landscape into Art. In doing so, this essay demonstrates that Bishop’s poem exposes a deliberate projection of an imperialistic worldview onto a landscape—here, Brazil—and by extension onto “new world” peoples radically violated by this imposition.
What is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics
Through journals, letters, dreams, and close readings of the work of many poets, Adrienne Rich reflects on how poetry and politics enter and impinge on American life. This expanded edition includes a new preface by the author as well as her post-9/11 "Six Meditations in Place of a Lecture."