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There's No Word for Saudade contains twenty-one essays aimed at a
readership interested in cultural and historical materials,
including those related to Portuguese America. Significant figures
covered include John Dos Passos, Charles Reis Felix, Julian Silva,
John Philip Sousa, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, James Merrill, and
the Azorean John Francis, businessman, patron, and friend to the
fabled Provincetown Players. Concluding essays scrutinize and judge
the phenomenon of the Portuguese movie in the 1930s and 1940s, and
trace the history of the tricky but persistently present Portuguese
concept of saudade.
Caldo Verde Is Not Stone Soup identifies elements of an emerging
Portuguese American culture in the United States. The book
discusses subjects and themes that reflect the richness and
diversity of this culture. Included are analyses of the Portuguese
fondness for nicknames over surnames, pejorative terms ("portugee,"
"Gee"), beau ideal heroes (John Philip Sousa, John Dos Passos, and
Peter Francisco), now forgotten early emigrants, foreign visitors
to the Azores (Samuel Longfellow and Thomas Wentworth Higginson),
proverbs from the oral and literary traditions, the Portuguese
sailor on American ships, and the saga of English As She Is Spoke,
a serious-minded textbook that became a comic phenomenon.
Ernest Hemingway revolutionized the American short story,
establishing himself as a master of realist fiction in the
tradition of Guy de Mauppasant. Yet none of Hemingway's many
emulators has succeeded in duplicating his understated, minimalist
style. In his Iceberg Theory of fiction, only the tip of the story
is seen on the surface - the rest remains submerged out of sight.
This study surveys the scope of Hemingway's mastery of the short
story form, enabling a fuller understanding of such works as
""Indian Camp,"" ""Big Two-Hearted River,"" ""The Killers,"" ""The
Mother of a Queen,"" ""In Another Country,"" ""Hills Like White
Elephants,"" ""The Snows of Kilimanjaro,"" and ""The Mercenaries,""
among many others. All 13 stories from his underrated Winner Take
Nothing collection are evaluated in detail.
Reading Henry James, looks to allusions, sources, echoes and
affinities in the author's vast body of work as critical ways to
discover and interpret his artistic purposes and literary
intentions. It ranges over the vast corpus of his fiction,
including stories, novelas and novels published in the leading
journals of the day on both sides of the Atlantic. The
considerations in individual chapters range from close analysis of
Daisy Miller, The American, The Beast in the Jungle and The Wings
of the Dove to James's creative fascinaton with the very successful
literary career as well as the everyday life of the social animal
who was the poet Robert Browning to James's complex but productive
relationship with his cambridge friends Marian ""Clover"" Adams and
her husband, the historian and autobiographer Henry Adams.
Longlisted for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation Born on the
island of Flores, between Europe and the United States, Pedro da
Silveira captures the islander's longing for migratory movement,
leading to departure and an inevitable return. These fresh and
original poems, now available in this masterful translation,
express a deep connection to place, particularly, the insular world
of the mid Atlantic islands of the Azores. In Poems in Absentia
& Poems from The Island and the World, we find yearning, hope,
and loss in equal measure. In plain and direct language, we
experience the emotions of dreaming and diminution as well as the
discovery of illusions. Behind the poet's searing irony, we
recognize a capacious and adventurous spirit.
"Wise old Virgil says in one of his Georgics, 'Praise large farms,
stick to small ones,'" Robert Frost told a friend. "Twenty acres
are just about enough." Frost started out as a school teacher
living the rural life of a would-be farmer, and later turned to
farming full time when he bought a place of his own. After a
sojourn in England where his first two books--A Boy's Will and
North of Boston--were published to critical acclaim, he returned to
New England, acquired a new farm and became a rustic for much of
the rest of his life. Frost claimed that all of his poetry was farm
poetry. His deep admiration for Virgil's Georgics, or poems of
rural life, inspired the creation of his own New England
"georgics." This body of work can be seen as his answer to the
haughty 20th-century modernism that seemed certain to define the
future of Western poetry. Like the "West-Running Brook" in his poem
of the same name, Frost's poetry can be seen as an embodiment of
contrariness.
Eighteen short essays by the most distinguished international
scholars examine Pessoa's influences, his dialogues with other
writers and artistic movements, and the responses his work has
generated worldwide. Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa claimed that
he did not evolve, but rather travelled. This book provides a state
of the art panorama of Pessoa's literary travels, particularly in
the English-speaking world. Its eighteen short, jargon-free essays
were written by the most distinguished Pessoa scholars across the
globe. They explore the influence on Pessoa's thinking of such
writers as Whitman and Shakespeare, as well as his creative
dialogues with figuresranging from decadent poets to the dark
magician Aleister Crowley, and, finally, some of the ways in which
he in turn has influenced others. They examine many different
aspects of Pessoa's work, ranging from the poetry of the heteronyms
to the haunting prose of The Book of Disquiet, from esoteric
writings to personal letters, from reading notes to unpublished
texts. Fernando Pessoa's Modernity Without Frontiers is a valuable
introduction to this multifaceted modern master, intended for both
students of modern literature and general readers interested in one
of its major figures.
An undisputed giant of twentieth-century Portuguese letters, writer
and literary critic Jorge de Sena (1919--1978) spent the most
Productive decades of his life away from Portugal, teaching at the
University of Wisconsin--Madison and the University of California,
Santa Barbara. In the essays gathered in this collection, George
Monteiro deftly weaves together his readings of Sena's poetry and
prose, both literary and critical, with evidence drawn from the
deep well of Sena's biographical archive, focusing in particular on
his Brazilian and U.S. years. This expansive overview of Sena's
unparalleled career, intended to commemorate the centenary of the
writer's birth, is also a tribute to Monteiro's own remarkably
voluminous and far-reaching body of work on the intersection of
Portuguese and Anglo-American literary studies.
"A poem is best read in the light of all the other poems ever
written." So said Robert Frost in instructing readers on how to
achieve poetic literacy. George Monteiro's newest book follows that
dictum to enhance our understanding of Frost's most valuable poems
by demonstrating the ways in which they circulate among the
constellations of great poems and essays of the New England
Renaissance. Monteiro reads Frost's own poetry not against "all the
other poems ever written" but in the light of poems and essays by
his precursors, particularly Emerson, Thoreau, and Dickinson.
Familiar poems such as "Mending Wall," "After Apple-Picking,"
"Birches," "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," "The Road Not
Taken," and "Mowing," as well as lesser known poems such as "The
Draft Horse," "The Ax-Helve," "The Bonfire," "Dust of Snow," "A
Cabin in the Clearing," "The Cocoon," and "Pod of the Milkweed,"
are renewed by fresh and original readings that show why and how
these poems pay tribute to their distinguished sources. Frost's
insistence that Emerson and Thoreau were the giants of
nineteenth-century American letters is confirmed by the many poems,
variously influenced, that derive from them. His attitude toward
Emily Dickinson, however, was more complex and sometimes less
generous. In his twenties he molded his poetry after hers. But
later, after he joined the faculty of Amherst College, he found her
to be less a benefactor than a competitor. Monteiro tells a
two-stranded tale of attraction, imitation, and homage countered by
competition, denigration, and grudging acceptance of Dickinson's
greatness as a woman poet. In a daring move, he composes -- out of
Frost's own words and phrases -- the talk on Emily Dickinson that
Frost was never invited to give. In showing how Frost's work
converses with that of his predecessors, Monteiro gives us a new
Frost whose poetry is seen as the culmination of an intensely felt
New England literary experience.
Fernando Pessoa (1888--1935) is perhaps the most engaging of the
great Western modernists of this century. Born in Portugal but
raised and educated in southern Africa, Pessoa wrote poetry,
fiction, and nonfiction.
George Monteiro provides refreshingly new interpretations of
Pessoa's Mensagem (Message) and the modernist novella 0 Banqueiro
Anarquista (The Anarchist Banker). But he is primarily interested
in tracing Pessoa's influence on a wide range of contemporary
writers.
Among those Monteiro finds putting Pessoa's work to their own
surprising-and sometimes comic-uses are Joyce Carol Oates, Allen
Ginsberg, John Wain, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and earlier poets
including Thomas Merton, Edouard Roditi, and Roy Campbell. In
addition, the complete text of Campbell's pioneering biocritical
study of Pessoa is published here for the first time.
Eugene O'Neill Remembered offers new views into the playwright's
life by capturing the direct memories of those who were close to
him through interviews, memoirs, and other recollections. These
sixty-two remembrances create an unprecedented image of O'Neill.
O'Neill is known principally as the author of some of the most
significant plays in the American dramatic canon and as one of
America's Nobel Laureates in literature. However, O'Neill's life
has long been shrouded in myth. O'Neill rarely gave interviews and
was not forthcoming about the details of his life. He also abetted
some of the misconceptions about his youth by, for example,
advocating the story that he was expelled from Princeton for
throwing a rock through Woodrow Wilson's window or by exaggerating
the amount of time he had spent at sea. The legend of the
hard-drinking, tormented playwright with a grim view of life was
further reinforced when Long Day's Journey into Night was produced
in 1956, three years after his death instead of the twenty-five
years he had insisted on. The portrayal of O'Neill as a tragic
figure has been solidified in a number of biographies. The purpose
of this collection, however, is to present O'Neill as others saw
him and described him in their first-person accounts. In the course
of these reminiscences, many of the vast and various narrators
conflict with and contradict each other. Unlike other accounts of
O'Neill's life, much of the focus is on impressions instead of
facts. The result is a revealing composite portrait of a key figure
in twentieth-century American literary history. This extensive
collection offers insights unavailable in any other book and will
hold massive appeal for scholars and students interested in
American literature, Eugene O'Neill, and theater history, as well
as anyone keen to uncover intimate details of the life of one of
America's greatest writers.
This book brings together almost all of the known interviews
Elizabeth Bishop gave over a period of thirty years. Included also
are a few selected pieces based on conversations with her. All
together they allow her ardent and admiring readers a rewarding,
close-up encounter with one of America's great writers.
In this collection of conversations Bishop expresses her
opinions about various types of poetry, describes her view of the
geography of the imagination in the writing process, defends her
often criticized feminist views, and discusses her role as teacher
and poet.
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) won many prizes for poetry,
including a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. She was
graduated from Vassar, where she knew Mary McCarthy. She taught at
Harvard, New York University, and the University of Washington and
was a long-time resident in Brazil.
Da Gama, Cary Grant, and the Election of 1934 is the story of an
election for mayor in a Massachusetts mill town in 1934 as seen
through the eyes of a ten-year-old Portuguese boy, Seraphin. The
incumbent, a Yankee, is challenged by candidates from five
different ethnic groups-Irish, French Canadian, Polish, Portuguese,
and Jewish. A portrait of each candidate is subtly drawn and we
meet campaign workers like Teddy, who has enlisted to help secure a
teaching position for his daughter, and Jimmy, a numbers runner who
proudly passes out cards announcing his appointment as Assistant
Campaign Manager, North End.
But the novel is more than just the story of an election. The
specter of the Depression hovers over every scene. Laura,
Seraphin's big sister, describes her job as a fruit-store clerk in
every excruciatingly painful detail. And the allure of America is
always present for Seraphin in his desire and longing to lead an
American life. America also affects the remarkable Secundo B.
Alves, the Portuguese candidate. Secundo's memories of the Azores
are honest, authentic, and touching. But when he is defeated in the
primary, he quickly bounces back as a supporter of the Frenchman's
candidacy and rewrites his Vasco da Gama imagery. Secundo is
showing the adaptability it takes to succeed in America. Da Gama,
Cary Grant, and the Election of 1934 is a valuable historical
document and an artistic triumph.
Of the great epic poets in the Western tradition, Luis Vaz de
Camoes (c. 1524-1580) remains perhaps the least known outside his
native Portugal, and his influence on literature in English has not
been fully recognized. In this major work of comparative
scholarship, George Monteiro thus breaks new ground. Combining
textual analysis with cultural investigation, he focuses on
English-language writers whose vision and expression have been
sharpened by their varied responses to Camoes. Introduced to
English readers in 1655, Camoes's work from the beginning appealed
strongly to writers. His Os Lustadas so affected William Hayley's
theory of the epic that he commissioned William Blake to paint
Camoes's portrait and advised poet Joel Barlow to recast his New
World epic along Camonean lines. Robert Southey's disappointment
with Lord Strangford's translation of Camoes encouraged him to try
his own versions. And the young Elizabeth Barrett's Camonean poems
inspired Edgar Allan Poe to appropriate elements from the same
source. Herman Melville's reading of Camoes bore fruit in his
career-long borrowings from the Portuguese poet. Longfellow, T. W.
Higginson, and Emily Dickinson read and championed Camoes. And
Camoes as epicist and love poet is an eminence grise in several of
Elizabeth Bishop's strongest Brazilian poems. Southern African
writers have interpreted and reinterpreted Adamastor, Camoes's
Spirit of the Cape, as a symbol of a dangerous and mysterious
Africa and an emblem of European imperialism.
Eugene O'Neill Remembered offers new views into the playwright's
life by capturing the direct memories of those who were close to
him through interviews, memoirs, and other recollections. These
sixty-two remembrances create an unprecedented image of O'Neill.
Known principally as the author of some of the most significant
plays in the American dramatic canon and as one of America's Nobel
Laureates in literature, O'Neill rarely gave interviews and offered
few details about himself. As a consequence, his life has long been
shrouded in myth. He also abetted some of the misconceptions about
his youth by, for example, advocating the story that he was
expelled from Princeton for throwing a rock through Woodrow
Wilson's window or by exaggerating the amount of time he had spent
at sea. The legend of the hard-drinking, tormented playwright with
a grim view of life was further reinforced when Long Day's Journey
into Night was produced in 1956, three years after his death
instead of the twenty-five years he had insisted on. The portrayal
of O'Neill as a tragic figure has been solidified in a number of
biographies. The purpose of this collection, however, is to present
O'Neill as others saw him and described him in their first-person
accounts. In the course of these reminiscences, many of the vast
and various narrators conflict with and contradict each other.
Unlike other accounts of O'Neill's life, much of the focus is on
impressions instead of facts. The result is a revealing composite
portrait of a key figure in twentieth-century American literary
history. This extensive collection offers insights unavailable in
any other book and will hold massive appeal for scholars and
students interested in American literature, Eugene O'Neill, and
theater history, as well as anyone keen to uncover intimate details
of the life of one of America's greatest writers.
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