A POÉTICA DAS VIAGENS: O BRASIL COMO INSPIRAÇÃO PARA ELIZABETH BISHOP

THE POETICS OF TRAVELING: BRAZIL AS INSPIRATION FOR ELIZABETH BISHOP

Abstract

Elizabeth Bishop's Questions of Travel, published in 1965, brings together poems in English about Brazil inspired by Brazilian culture, revealing the poet's foreign gaze, from her first contact with the country to her stay. The purpose of this article is to discuss Bishop's poetics, highlighting the genre of travel literature through poems created from her experiences in Brazil. Her life and work, her relationship with Brazil, her writing style and the concept of travel literature will be addressed, associating the poems with travel reports. Therefore, the analysis of three poems selected from the work Questions of Travel will follow in order to reflect on the changes in Elizabeth Bishop's perception of Brazil. To develop the biography of the poet, we rely on letters written by Bishop, gathered by Giroux (1994), on observations by Ellis (1950), Millier (1993) and reflections by Britto (1999), who grouped and translated poems by Bishop inspired by in Brazil. Regarding the poet's writing style, we turn to Anastácio (1999), Costello (1991) and Robbins (1966), who discuss her modern poetry. The theme of travel in the poet's writing is explored from the perspective of Bernlef (1976) and Bross (1976); and the travel literature, from the perspective of Cristóvão (2002), Junqueira (2011), Machado & Pageaux (1994), Ribeiro (2010) and Romano (2013).