Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in English
First Advisor
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Second Advisor
Gary Short
Third Advisor
Cristin Ellis
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
While there exists some scholarship affirming the aesthetic and intellectual connections between transcendentalism and the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, there is to date no substantial study of what role Ralph Waldo Emerson singularly played in the inheritance of that tradition. This essay seeks to validate Emerson as Bishop's literary parentage, an influence that, though not immediately identifiable, greatly shaped her creative process. In so doing, it addresses the critical mistakes which have prevented a thorough discussion of Emerson's relevance and, moreover, negatively dominated the imagination of Bishop scholarship. As an exploration of the writers' shared iconography, their mutual metaphors, the following traces three comsubjects: nature, language, and vision.
Recommended Citation
Mayo, Joshua Andrew, "My Higher Self: Elizabeth Bishop and the Endurance of Emerson" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 190.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/190