A BRAZIL OF HER OWN: HOW BRAZIL ALLOWED ELIZABETH BISHOP TO FIND HER FULL VOICE

Abstract

“A Brazil of her own” examines how her move to Brazil enabled Elizabeth Bishop to transform both herself and the I of her poems. Finding a freedom in being a traveler, Bishop's years in Brazil allowed her to explore both her sexuality and the possibilities of poetic voice, and allowing her to bring disparate aspects of her self into a non-dialectical whole. In this way Bishop was exploring Brazil, herself, and poetry in the poems of Questions of Travel, particularly.