{"title":"The Stoic Comedy of Elizabeth Bishop and Buster Keaton","authors":"George A. Potts","doi":"10.1353/elh.2022.0028","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Elizabeth Bishop famously asserted in 1964 that poetry “can be cheerful AND profound! – or, how to be grim without groaning,” delineating a form of tragicomic equilibrium which she found embodied by “any of Buster Keaton’s films.” This article explores how Keaton provided Bishop with a model of stoic comedy, one through which she could reimagine worldly tribulation as slapstick poetry. Examining the dramatic monologue “Keaton” alongside “Sandpiper” and other poems, I argue that Bishop’s imaginative investment in slapstick film is most palpable in a recurrent scenario from her poetry, in which a singular figure exists on brinks and limits. In these poems, humor functions as an invitation to read more deeply, while the reserve for which Keaton’s character is famous becomes a self-referential play on Bishop’s own reputation as a reticent poet.","PeriodicalId":46490,"journal":{"name":"ELH","volume":"50 1","pages":"807 - 832"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ELH","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/elh.2022.0028","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:Elizabeth Bishop famously asserted in 1964 that poetry “can be cheerful AND profound! – or, how to be grim without groaning,” delineating a form of tragicomic equilibrium which she found embodied by “any of Buster Keaton’s films.” This article explores how Keaton provided Bishop with a model of stoic comedy, one through which she could reimagine worldly tribulation as slapstick poetry. Examining the dramatic monologue “Keaton” alongside “Sandpiper” and other poems, I argue that Bishop’s imaginative investment in slapstick film is most palpable in a recurrent scenario from her poetry, in which a singular figure exists on brinks and limits. In these poems, humor functions as an invitation to read more deeply, while the reserve for which Keaton’s character is famous becomes a self-referential play on Bishop’s own reputation as a reticent poet.