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Elizabeth Bishop |
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Bishop did not want her work represented in anthologies of women's poetry, since she wished to be considered purely as a poet, without any descriptive limitations on the term. And, given both her personal reserve and the times in which she lived, it is hardly surprising that she did not deal directly with issues of her sexuality. But, given the times in which we live, it is equally unsurprising that there has been considerable focus on her life and work through the interconnected approaches of PSYCHOLOGICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL, and GENDER criticism. In addition to the Kalstone book listed in the "Bibliography," two full-length studies engage these issues through an examination of Bishop's relationship with Marianne Moore: Jeredith Merrin's An Enabling Humility: Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, and the Uses of Tradition (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990) and Joanne Feit Diehl's Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore: The Psychodynamics of Creativity (Princeton University Press, 1993).
Bishop's frequent use of historical and topographical material in her poetry requires HISTORICAL criticism for full comprehension. The superior craft of her works compels attention from a FORMALIST point of view. Individual poems can best be studied through a combination of approaches, such as the BIOGRAPHICAL and FORMALIST in connection with "One Art," or the BIOGRAPHICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, and GENDER in connection with "In the Waiting Room."
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