First of all, my research will primarily focus on the poet’s assimilation of the feminine visibility into nature

Chapter Three

Female subjectivity and Transgression

Caught -- the bubble in the spirit level, a creature divided;

and the compass needle wobbling and wavering, undecided.

Freed -- the broken thermometer's mercury running away;

and the rainbow-bird from the narrow bevel of the empty mirror, flying wherever it feels like, gay!

Elizabeth Bishop, Sonnet(1979)¹

In the last part of my research, I aim at investigating into the interactive relationship between the poet’s search for female subjectivity and the aesthetic of transgression. First of all, my research will primarily focus on the poet’s assimilation of the feminine visibility into nature. In this very maneuver, the poet underlines the significance of recognizing female experiences in nature, which in her depiction renders nature dynamic, changing and ambiguous by proving that female subjectivity

1 The reason why I include this poem as an initial introduction of my last chapter lies in the fact that this poem demonstrates the unbound freedom, vibrancy, and “gayness,” which underline the feelings of liberation and emancipation. Right here in my thesis, I attempt to prove Bishop’s display of female subjectivity proceeds into freedom and liberation. And this poem proves the thematic basis that I have been working on regarding the poet’s demonstration of female identity. Moreover, the word “gay” in this poem may have an ambiguous meaning; “gay” can highlight the joyful and energetic

demonstration of personal subjectivity or imply the implicit lesbian identity of the poet’s inner self, which is denied to name itself under the social standard.

is shifting and flowing. Different from the essentialists whose demonstrations of nature remain static and are constantly conceptualized in one single sphere and visualization. For instance, in pastoral literature nature is always perceived as a harmonious, immaculate, and uplifting landscape, which suits humankind perfectly.

We can see this essentialism tendency of pastoral literature through Andrew Ettin’s investigation into the pastoral landscape presented in his Literature and the Pastoral:²

The pastoral landscape discreetly balances its qualities; it exemplifies pastoral virtues. Second, the landscape is emotionally comfortable, or appropriate, for its inhabitants. It surrounds them with an unchallenging setting that may actually be a relief from life’s troubles. ( 129).

As we can see, nature here is regarded as a tame, comfortable, and relaxing place.

Furthermore, even in the Romantic period nature has always been interwoven with divine principles. Nature in a sense is divine, dignified, and spiritualized. The great poet William Wordsworth, for example, always prioritizes the beauty of nature and its rewarding impact on men.

However, Bishop obviously portrays nature in a dynamic presence, which shall never be essentialized and interpreted in one single way. In this sense, I argue in her depiction nature can not only be presented as the tender and nurturing Mother Nature, but as a vibrantly captivating and mysterious existence that is empowered with the thriving force to transgress our preconceptions of it. Therefore, nature is ambiguously mysterious in her works, which unfolds multitudes of layers of its revealing facets and inherent meanings. Since nature refuses to be defined in one single perspective, the attempt to demarcate the feminized nature and its supposed boundaries becomes impossible. And this is the strength and transgression of Bishop’s feminization of nature I am talking about in the first part of my analysis because she

2 Ettin, Andrew V. Literature and the Pastoral. New Haven: Yale UP, 1984.

allows nature to exist outside of the confinement of essentialism categories so as to bring out the emancipating power of transgression lying in the poet’s display of nature, which releases itself from any static and assigned role.

Before we plunge into her poems regarding female expressions and nature, it is important for us to have an initial grip on the discussion of female experience and nature theologically. Claiming that women’s relation to men corresponds to nature in relation to culture, Sherry Ortner further points out that women in tradition are considered to be closer to nature while men are more intimately regarded as founders of culture. She further suggests that woman’s physiology, mentality and social status all combine to position her closer to nature. In this sense, woman’s intimate

association with nature perceived by the society demonstrates the fact that women are on a larger scale restricted by a “ narrow and generally more conservative set of attitudes and views than men” ( 73~85).³ Ortner basically proposes that women are supposed to be wild, untamed, passionate while men are thought to be more civilized and enlightened. Ortner’s argument is supported by those essentialists, who attempt to demarcate the line between nature and gender. Furthermore, in Nature, Culture and Gender, Maurice and Jean Bloch follow the tradition to account for woman’s place in relation to nature and argue that women should be denied the access to untamed nature, which is deemed to be wild, powerful and intimidating(25~42).⁴ As we can see, historically women are not only associated with wild, untamed, and powerfully subversive nature, but conversely restrained to move freely into the pristine

wilderness and unsettled landscape for fear that they may be polluted and influenced by the potency and strength of nature.

3 Ortner, Sherry B. “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” Woman, Culture and Society. Eds.

Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1974.

4 Bloch, Maurice and Jean Bloch. “ Women and the Dialectics of Nature in Eighteenth-Century.”

Nature, Culture and Gender. Ed. Carol P. MacCormack and Marilyn Strathern. Cambridge: Cambride University Press, 1980. 25-42.

Feminize Nature

When I reflect on the prevalent and deep-seated prejudice against women’s natural right of moving and traveling, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening provides a perfect example to illustrate the correlation between the social restrictions on females and the symbolism of nature implicated in this work. I think it is important for us to grasp an initial understanding concerning how nature has functioned in the early female literary tradition as well as in Bishop’s art. And Chopin can be regarded as a representative pioneer who feminizes nature wildly. In this story, undoubtedly nature plays a crucial role in reshaping Edna’s personal identity. While the desire of gaining independence overwhelms her, it’s fair to say that the sea has played a prominent role in beckoning and reshaping Edna to follow her impulse. Throughout the story, the sea and its sensuously recurring sound of the waves which have always been classified as the force of escape and liberation inspire and allure her by awakening her innermost voice and arousing her infinite potential of pursuing a vehemently independent life. In this sense we can say if the elements of nature are taken away, Edna will fail to experience her self-realization:

The years that are gone seem like dreams—if one might go on sleeping and dreaming—but to wake up and find—oh! well! Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life. ( Awakening 93)

Furthermore, nature inevitably represents the wild and untamed passion of the female protagonist in The Storm. The storm which helps to relieve sexual restraints represents the guiltlessly and passionately sexual affair taking place under the

sheltering of nature. Robert Wilson highlights the intruding of nature and its essential

potential by clarifying that “Chopin’s title refers to nature, which is symbolically feminine; the storm can therefore be seen as symbolic of feminine sexuality and passion” (“ Feminine Sexuality and Passion” 1). Nature and passion are interwoven in this very story as we can see:

The generous abundance of her passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and found response in depths of his own sensuous nature that had never yet been reached. (116)

The story ends in a peaceful and delightful atmosphere in which everyone feels refreshed and renewed without any guilt or shame as the narrator ends, “ So the storms passed and everyone was happy” ( The Storm 117). Based on these two stories, I intend to highlight how nature has been fascinatingly intertwined with the wild, free and subversive potentiality of female passion and sexuality.

As we can see from the previous examples of Kate Chopin’s works, the demonstration of nature is inextricably entwined with the brave expression of female subjectivity. In fact, nature functions to stimulate the innermost desire and craving for freedom and individuality in the character’s heart, which compels her to walk on the path of searching for freedom and personal belonging. Besides, nature also facilitates to ignite an illegitimate passion when nature and female passion are linked together in the second example. Furthermore, in Bishop’s poem, we can discern a combination of the previous two examples regarding female identity in relation to nature. In fact, Bishop feminizes nature enormously in her poems. In her works, nature can also be perceived as a pivotal locus to nurture the unrestrained expression of female subjectivity, and to recognize the illegitimate passion of a possibly homoerotic relationship. Nature, for example, is associated with a realization of female

subjectivity and passion in her “ Imber Nocturnus.”⁵ In this poem, Bishop not only evokes a passionate affair which can hardly accommodate itself to the externally social law forbidding the vehement expression of her possible lesbian sexuality, but also embodies the transgressive undercurrent of feminine sexuality in a different light which is able to violate and subvert social, moral and marital constraints concerning what is acceptable or permissible as such an intense tone of passion and freedom is obviously described:

Has her sweet journey reached a high hill where

Two weeks ago

We lay alone, in light, above the sea, Your voice as slow

And silver-gay as shadows in a wind touched tree.

And oh, I know

The spell of joy that still is on that place As grasses backward blow

Will halt the rain with a sad wonder on her face! (215, original italics) At the very beginning of the poem, the poet has feminized nature as a female “ she.”

For example, “she” comes “on stealthy-stealing feet.” Now we see nature keeps on

“her” journey by extending her power to reach everywhere. Later we realize the feminized nature is more specifically linked to the rain, which is described with sweetness and delight. Here the poet further puts two lover-like figures in the feminized nature. These two lover-like figures immerse themselves in the female nature. They are surrounded by the dazzling light and sea, which reveal their nature of

5 This is a poem written in the poet’s youth, the year 1928.

brightness, freedom and liberation. “Light” obviously refers to the sunshine; and these two lover-like figures are surrounded by sunshine and sea, which is a landscape symbolic of joy, freedom and broadness. But the narrator remembers her implicit lover whose voice is “ silver-gay.” The word “silver-gay” not only suggests the happy moment in which these two lover-like figures immerse themselves delightfully in the very fascinating landscape where the sea, the sunlight and the breeze sweeping across the leaves work together to create a harmonic nature, but also implies a gay love between these two figures.

As we all know, the poet herself is a lesbian. While commenting on Bishop’s oblique treatment of subjectivity in her poems, David Jarraway maintains that “ gay subjectivity produces oblique rhetoric in an oppressive culture. Bishop’s oblique rhetoric is the very portrait of gay subjectivity ” ( 245).⁶ Therefore, I propose it is possible that the word “gay” in this poem suggests an implicitly homosexual love that can’t be recognized in the societal system. Moreover, right here the word “gay” is linked to the word “sliver,” which suggests the possible homosexual love has come out to the light in the feminized nature. In the embrace of nature, this clandestine relationship can come under light and have its place acknowledged and celebrated by the delightful and mesmerizing rhythms of the feminized nature. And all the sweet memory of this moment can even make the rain stop her sadness, which further underscores the bright and joyful prospect of this homoerotic love with its capacity to lighten up the landscape.

Intriguingly, this poem combines the feminized nature with the implicitly homoerotic love in a harmonic interaction. The poet may attempt to affirm that this forbidden love can exist in a place where forever sunlight will shed upon the blessed

6 Jarraway, David. “ O Canada!: The Spectral Lesbian Poetics of Elizabeth Bishop.” PMLA 113.2 (Mar 1998): 243-58.

lovers:

And she will slip

Down silently and leave our hill alone, And hide where dark leaves drip…

We caught the sun forever there—the shadows are our own.

As this love has its name spoken in the presence of nature, the rain will go away. She will leave “ silently” and even “hide” herself in the dark clouds. Suggestively, the rain doesn’t even want to disturb the happiest moment shared by these two lovers. And this possibly homoerotic relationship embraced, supported and glorified by nature will preserve itself intact and complete in this very place where the sun shines on these two lovers tenderly. What’s more, when the narrator says,“ the shadows are our own,” the possibly homoerotic relationship between these two people has been increasingly emphasized. We know that the word “shadow” is always associated with the darkness or an unknown secret. Therefore, when the narrator uses “ shadows” to describe the very situation in this poem, “ shadows” which belong to their own can mean a possibly forbidden love only shared by these two people. This love is tinted with “ shadows” because it is disallowed to come under the light in this society if it is gay love. Therefore, it is these two people’s individually psychological

“shadows,” which can also mean their personally dark secrets that are known only by each other. However, when the sun shines upon these two people forever, we can discern nature isn’t hostile to their “shadows” because the sun is willing to let their

“shadows” come out under the light. Throughout the poem, we can discern nature is without doubt sexualized, feminized, and imbued with a transcending way of

perceiving and overwhelming power of transgression as all the wonders in nature conspire to create a space for this forbidden love

Since the strength and wildness of nature have been linked with female space

in such a literary tradition, no wonder the dread and proscription against the female journey into the unknown territory has been prevalent and understandable because the wilderness and the foreign terrain may bestow the denial of the weakness of self upon women who have been traditionally assumed to be protected under the male

guardianship. While undertaking the expedition of discovering themselves in an unfamiliar land, the female may find inspiration and seek a perspective-changing experience that takes her beyond her self, her usual experience and connection with the world. As a result, the undomestiocated nature of those females who are eager to take on such an exploration of nature may be feared. Intriguingly, Isabella Bird in A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains describes the intolerable temperament of social

attitude toward her traveling:⁷

The newspapers, with their intolerable personality, have made me and my riding so notorious, that travelers speaks courteously to me when they meet me on the prairie, doubtless wishing to see what sort of monster I am. (235)

As we can see, those women who have been brave enough to take on the challenge of exploring nature are demonized and stigmatized. In this sense, the understanding of how nature may have an impact on women makes the society to demonize those women who seek to contact with nature and refuse to forfeit their personal rights by surrendering to the dominance of societal expectation. The flamboyantly

demonstration of an independent female subjectivity connected with nature can make the poet become demonized in that social system. Therefore, as Jarraway has

suggested previously, the poet can only choose to manipulate “oblique rhetoric” so as to protect herself and free herself from the social stigmatization. In this view, by

7 Bird, Isabella. A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960.

means of “oblique rhetoric” the poet’s combination of nature and female subjectivity can make feminized nature appear to be free, unconstrained, liberating, mysterious, and counteracting against oppressions implicitly. Therefore, Bishop’s task of elevating feminine space and feminizing landscape can be perceived as an implicit

transgression against the patriarchal dominance.

More importantly, it is significant to recognize the fact that Bishop refuses to be categorized as a feminist proponent nor does her poetry demonstrate an obvious aversion to the patriarchal doctrines. As biographer Gary Fountain has indicated,

“ Bishop would have been uncomfortable with a biographical study of this sort…she had a ferocious sense of privacy” (14).⁸ Although she has kept a great deal to herself, it is within the sphere of her poetry that we witness the implicit voice of transgression and the desire of specifying female subjectivity and characteristics in a great measure.

According to Bonnie Costello in “Elizabeth Bishop’s Impersonal Personal,” she argues that Bishop’s “ poems do not so much veil or transmute the personal as expose the categories of the ‘personal’ and ‘impersonal’ to scrutiny.” To support her proposal that Bishop assimilates her personal life into her artistic engagement, Costello

underscores the focus of her research on the poet’s art by announcing that Bishop’s poems “enact the very problems of forging identity and of linking identity to voice”

(334~5).⁹ In this case, as we walk into the terrain of her feminized nature, we simultaneously follow every trace of her poetry that intends to assimilate the flowing and subversive nature of female subjectivity into the natural landscape. In this strategy, nature becomes too complex to define in one single way because it can

8 Fountain, Gary and Peter Brazeau. Elizabeth Bishop: An Oral Biography. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1994.

9 Costello, Bonnie. “ Elizabeth Bishop's Impersonal Personal.” American Literary History Vol. 15.2 ( Summer 2003 ): 334-66.

challenge our perspective on it through its various displays. In other words, Bishop attempts to imply the fact that female subjectivity shouldn’t be categorized and understood on the basis of a traditionally rigid demarcation. Based on her proposition, the essence of female identity is flowing, traversing and crossing the static sexed identity assumed by the society traditionally, which functions to perceive gender relation from a series of rigidly common and unchanging characteristics.

Corresponding to what Bonnie has argued, in my following research I will pay particular attention to how the poet feminizes landscape multiply and dynamically, which transgresses the static and traditional view of nature imposed by the social system. In such a vigorous and fascinating manner dealing with the diverse aspects of nature, the poet animates the landscape into a transformative multiplicity by

infinitely endowing nature with a variety of female traits. Based on Jacqueline Labbe M., she proposes that the gaze on nature between male and female differs from each other dramatically. While the male tends to regard nature, such as a

mountain summit, as a terrain to conquer, the female is more liable to lay much stress on the detailed and careful observation of nature and landscape (14~5).¹⁰ As we turn our attention to Bishop’s demonstration of nature within her poetry, the detailed observation of nature has been abundantly prevalent. Furthermore, her strategy to feminize nature in a different light, which contributes to the vibrant, dynamic, and invigorating sense of femininity rather than the traditionally passive tendency of female quality, represents an aesthetic of transgression from within. In “ Elizabeth Bishop: Voice as Perversity,” Jacqueline Brogan has the very idea that Bishop

subverts the tradition and patriarchal value from within rather than from without. She

10 Labbe, Jacqueline M. Romantic Visualities: Landscape, Gender and Romanticism. London:

Macmillan Press, 1998.

argues Bishop takes advantage of the traditionally lyric form, but gilds her art with a new light, able to transgress and able to reinforce an integrity of female subjectivity (176).¹¹ In “ A Cold Spring,” for instance, we witness how the poet has gendered nature as a female terrain pulsing and bristling with vigor, liberation and voices of difference.

Before we plunge into the poem “ A Cold Spring,” it’s necessary to mention a previous scholar who attempts to see this poem from the poet’s lesbian sexuality.

Susan McCabe proposes this poem as the poet’s love letter to Jane Dewey, in which the landscape symbolically represents the female body. By so doing, the poet herself can thus take on a male disguise as a newborn male calf instead. McCabe suggest that we don’t witness “stark confession,” but we see the homoerotic “ passions converted and implied” in this very poem(101):¹²

A cold spring:

The violet was flawed on the lawn.

For two weeks or more the trees hesitated;

The little leaves waited, Carefully indicating their characteristics.

Finally a grave green dust

Settled over your big and aimless hills.

One day, in a chill white blast of sunshine, On the side of one a calf was born.

The mother stopped lowing

And took a long time eating the after-birth, A wretched flag;

11 Brogan, Jacqueline Vaught. “ Elizabeth Bishop: Perversity as Voice.” The Geography of Gender. Ed.

Marilyn May Lombardi. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993. 175-195.

12 McCabe, Susan. Elizabeth Bishop: Her Poetics of Loss. University Park: Penn State UP, 1994.

But the calf got up promptly And seemed inclined to feel gay.

Spring is supposed to be the very season in which nature gets dressed in a new suit, and the energetic sprouting of new life springs up one after another. However, the cold spring casts a different beat on the development of new lives. We see the violet

becomes “ flawed,” trees is described so “ hesitated, ” and the leaves still “ waited”

for the right time to sprout up. Suddenly the hills are touched by the grace of spring;

new lives begin to blanket the earth magically. Here McCabe further emphasizes

“ your big and aimless hills” symbolize the female body ( Elizabeth Bishop 117).

Later as the sunshine sheds a “white blast” on one side of the hill where a calf is born.

We further observe the process of mother cow giving birth to the baby calf is vividly described. Spring in a deeper sense is integrated into the characteristics of femininity, for we know that the ability to produce offspring undoubtedly belongs to the privilege of the female. As the mother cow spends some time “eating” her newborn baby, we see the affection of the mother figure towards her baby builds up a love primarily shared by mother and son. The newborn baby which is still “ a wretch flag”

immediately gets up.

Significantly, the vitality of the newborn calf is so sensible that we feel the spring, landscape and the animals are vitally enlivened, which interact and

complement one another to create a female space in which even the baby calf instantly inclines to “ feel gay.” The ending which stresses the inclination of feeling

“gay” concerning the calf takes on an ambiguous atmosphere. On the surface, the calf may look happy because his first contact with her mother and the world have just begun, and there are more new explorations for him to experience in the future.

However, beyond the surface interpretation arises a homoerotic bonding. According to Costello’s analysis, the newborn calf is male. In this sense, Bishop herself

manipulates “a subversive relationship to the Romantic gendering of nature as female” ( Elizabeth Bishop 337). Therefore, the inclination of feeling gay may

implicitly suggest the sexual orientation of the poet herself as a lesbian, who takes on a disguise as a calf to maintain a close connection with the feminized nature.

In the later part of this poem, various creatures take part in the celebration of spring festival, which creates a lively atmosphere. Moreover, the colorful dress that nature puts on will display a variety of life forms springing up and growing. Nature is still the mother figure which nurtures the worldly beings:

The next day As much warmer.

Green-white dogwood infiltrates the woods, Each petals burned, apparently, by a cigarette-butt;

And the blurred redbud stood

Beside it, motionless, but almost more Like movement than any placeable color.

Four deer practicing leaping over your fences.

The infant oak-leaves swung through the sober oak.

Song-sparrows were wound up for the summer, And in the maple the complementary cardinal Cracked a whip, and the sleeper awoke,

Stretching miles of green limbs from the south . In his cap the lilacs whitened,

Then one day they fell like snow.

As we can see, time changes and the climate gets warmer. The native flora and fauna all thrive flourishingly in the embrace of spring. Subsequently we see the

“green-white dogwood” spreads all over the woods, with its colorful petals and

“ redbud.” Besides, it is worth noting that the “burned” petals, “redbud,” and

“ cigarette-butt” are symbolically violent images. These violent images linked to the feminized nature in this poem suggest that female identity itself can be

overwhelmingly disruptive, destructive and subversive since it’s endowed with the tremendously transgressive potency here. In this sense, the poet denies the assumed qualities of fragility and weakness assimilated into the recognition of female identity.

Moreover, the images which link nature to the life-giver and mother figure shall never be neglected as we observe “the infant oak-leaves” can’t wait to become a member of the spring feast. In addition to the flora, animals also jump out to join the party. The deer appears to participate in the spring festival with its “leaping.” Sparrows are excited about the coming summer.

In this part, the images of flora and fauna help to create a vision bristling with diverse colors and tremendous animation. I believe what the writer wants to stress by so doing is to underscore the fact that the demonstration of femininity is by no means submissive and pessimistic. The mother nature here impresses us very much

with its enormous vigor to nurture and produce all life forms. However, it is also transgressive because its inherent potential to cause destruction is overseen from the violent images presented that implicitly indicate the tremendous strength of female power. For instance, in this poem the “cardinal” maple can even “ crack ” a whip, which awakens the land to process its greenery metamorphosis by its “ stretching.”

The lilacs are whitened and someday they can “fall like snow.” All this group of flora here turns out to be more vivacious than animals. The poet may suggest that in nature nothing is static just like the flowing characteristic of female identity and all life forms constantly thrive and expand. As we consider nature and femininity in this sense, the feminized nature retains its magic spell to animate the weathered landscape in which we celebrate the wonder, power, and delightfulness of femininity.

Furthermore, the feminized nature with its “petals burned” and “cigarette butt” can reveal its potential to transgress and cause violence since it is interwoven with these violent images.

In the last part of the poem, the narrator’s attention will focus on the frogs and insects, which fulfills the task of feminizing landscape into a combination of joyful disposition, ethereal freedom, and endless possibility for transcendence. It proves the fact even though the night veil descends on the land, the nightfall doesn’t draw the vibrant activities within nature to an end. Instead, we witness the power of Mother Nature is ceaseless and overwhelming:

Now, in the evening, a new moon comes,

The hills grow faster. Tufts of long grass show where each cow-flop lies.

The bull-frogs are sounding,

slack strings plucked by heavy thumbs.

Beneath the light, against you white front door, the smallest moths, like Chinese fans,

flatten themselves, silver and silver-gilt over pale yellow, orange, or gray.

Now, from the thick grass, the fireflies begin to rise:

up, then down, the up again:

lit on the ascending flight,

drifting simultaneously to the same height,

—exactly like the bubbles in champagne.

—Later on they rise much higher.

And your shadowy pasture will be able to offer Theses particular glowing tributes

every evening now throughout the summer. (55-6)

As night invades the terrain, the force of life blessed by nature remains unstoppable and refuses to ceases its spreading and undertaking. In addition to the growing of the long grass, we also find bull-frogs are taking part in the night ceremony by their

“ sounding.” The moths which “ flatten themselves” are also “ silver and silver-gild”

beneath the light. While the night veil overshadows the land at its prime time, the color and vibrancy of these creatures still cast a captivating light on perceiver’s perception of the night vision. The diverse colors of the moths which are described as

“pale yellow,” “orange,” and “ gray” seem to forebode that something more fascinating and thought-provoking is about to occur.

Subsequently, from the thick grass, the narrator remarks that the fireflies have just begun their performance. The fireflies that fly “ up, then down, then up again”

play a most prominent role in firing up the vitality and boundless energy inherent in female subjectivity. As we witness the fireflies practice their dance with ease, grace, and freedom, the escalating focus on the supremacy of female subjectivity has been spotlighted. The narrator further describes the vision of the night sky lit up by the fireflies in such an intriguing and captivating tone: “ exactly like the bubbles in champagne, later on they rise higher.” The vividly described scene not only invokes an exquisite panorama displayed by the gracefully ascending fireflies, but also inspires our imagination to its greatest magnitude, making us unable to resist the temptation of envisioning the very scene in our mind. The poem forebodes a positive prospect with regard to such a night scene as the narrator remarks the landscape will display such “ glowing tributes” throughout the summer evenings. Traditionally, night time has been considered to be the most tranquil and peaceful moment in which most

life forms cease their activities and take a rest. Therefore, it is always perceived to be static and passive rather than vigorous and invigorating. However, here the glowing tributes linked to the feminine nature not only elevate the transgression of the

feminized nature by displaying itself so impressively animated even in the dark vision, but also imply the fact that the nature of femininity can outshine and prevail even in the darkest hours. In this sense, the elevation of female subjectivity has been highlighted and strengthened; we are hindered to consider the female subjectivity vulnerable, lifeless, and melancholy. The empowered feminine space embodies itself as a beacon to bring light, life, hope, and glamour to the earth, which will never intimidate the landscape like the invading of urbanity and civilization represented by men.

In “Brazil, January 1, 1502 ” (91~2), nature is also feminized. However, this time nature further displays a vision of its multiplicity for us, in which we explore the delicate and feminine traits of nature initially revealed in this very poem:

Januaries, Nature greets our eyes exactly as she must have greeted theirs:

every square inch filling with foliage big leaves, little leaves, and giant leaves, blue, blue-green, and olive,

with occasional lighter veins and edges, or a satin underleaf turned over,

monster ferns in silver-gray relief,

and flowers, too, like giant water lilies up in the air-up, rather, in the leaves—

purple, yellow, two yellows, pink,

rust red and greenish white;

solid but airy; fresh as if just finished and taken off the frame.

Before we plunge into the interpretation of the poem, it is worthy to note that the author employs Kenneth Clark’s “embroidered nature, tapestries landscape” as its initial illustration for the poem. This poem further foregrounds the demonstration of feminine nature is a patchwork of the detailed, delicate and fertile landscape. From Clark’s metamorphoses of nature and landscape, he obviously associates the female identity with “ embroidered tapestries,” which reveals the delicate and flamboyant exhibitions of female subjectivity that is enriched and diverse. Therefore, the poem starts with the impression of how nature is turned into a beautifully feminine “she,”

who greets our eyes in a fascinatingly diverse way. Then we proceeds to witness how nature will greet our eyes with her wonders. The narrator describes nature dressed in

“ foliage,” adorned with leaves of multiple sizes and colors, and embellished by

“silver-gray” ferns and flowers of resplendent colors. Besides, as the landscape takes on a sense of femininity as we see flowers like “ giant water lilies” flying up in the leaves. It occurs to me that the liberating power of Mother Nature has been evoked once again as “she” reaches her gentle hand to caress these beautiful flowers, which create a vision as if the flowers were flying up in the air. In my research on the theme of transgression presented in my second chapter, I argue the prevalence of flying images presented in the poet’s works have something to do with the theme of transgression since “flying” means the ability to cross the border and boundary so as to seek freedom. And here the water lilies that look like “up in the air-up” may suggest that nature is a place nurturing the power of freedom, liberation and transgression. Under the touch of nature, the flowers create a vision in which they appear to fly up in the air. Besides, the viewer finally describes the whole scenario in

an ambiguous tone by saying this vision looks “solid but airy.” While the breeze passes by the flower bed, these flowers look as if flying up in the air, which surely brings forth an airy illusion. However, we can never judge the scenario in merely one single way. Not only being turned into an airy vision, the whole view is also described as solid as possible and the viewer imagines these flowers can just be “taken off the frame.” While considering the whole tapestry of nature being presented to the readers here, it drives me to ponder why the narrator attempts to take on such an ambiguous tone of description. In my opinion, the narrator may imply nature, as a beautiful female, can be both real and unreal simultaneously. It is real because we witness the whole scenario happening realistically, and it’s unreal because the dazzling beauty of nature is too dreamy and illusionary. Nature shouldn’t be judged from the essentialism viewpoint because it is constantly changing and dynamic.

In addition to the display of feminine nature from above, in the following a scene concerned with female sexuality is also evoked to create an oppressive as well as an intimidating relationship between female and male lizards. Interestingly, the female image shown here is considered dangerously trangressive rather than passive and vulnerable:

A blue-white sky, a simple web, backing for feathery detail:

brief arcs, a pale-green broken wheel, a few palms, swarthy, squat, but delicate;

and perching there in profile, beaks agape, the big symbolic birds keep quiet,

each showing only half his puffed and padded, pure-colored or spotted breast.

Still in the foreground there is Sin:

five sooty dragons near some massy rocks.

The rocks are worked with lichens, gray moonbursts splattered and overlapping,

threatened from underneath by moss In lovely hell-green flames,

attacked above

by scaling-ladder vines, oblique and neat,

“one leaf yes and one leaf no”

The lizards scarcely breathe; all eyes are on the smaller, female one, back-to, her wicked tail straight up and over.

red as a red-hot wire.

As usual, the poem starts with some feminine images with regard to a “web” and

“feathery detail.” Then we witness the male birds seem to be active in their oestrus cycle. The bird with its “puffed,” “padded,” “pure-colored,” and “spotted breast” is apparently eager to demonstrate his sexual appeal to attract females. Furthermore, while the narrator speaks of “sin,” the immediate vision of the “five footy dragons”

and “massy rocks” appear in my mind, which helps me envision a waterfall pouring down from the hill. In fact, “lichens,” “moss” and “gray moonbursts” conspire to create a hellish vision covered by “hell-green flames.” And we wonder what “sin” is referred to here exactly. Besides, what is the very connection between “sin” and this hellish vision? That may be an intriguing point worth of our contemplation.

Furthermore, we see the male lizards are obviously in their oestrus cycle as well, which pose a threat to the smaller, female one. Besides, the tail of the female lizard is described to be as “red as a red-wire,” which reveals an ambiguous position of the female lizard. Although the female lizard is threatened by those male counterparts, her

tail that is similar to “a red-hot wire” seems to suggest her subversive power to defend herself against those male aggressors instead of falling into the role as a weak female victim.

Moreover, the virgin-like female lizard may underscore the freshness and irresistible charm of female nature, which is able to ignite the sexual desires of the male creatures such as birds and lizards. What’s more, the female lizard with its

“wicked, red” tail straight up indeed reveals a voluptuous nature of female

subjectivity, which manipulates its attraction to precipitate sexual passions. And this is what “sin” is referred to here in my opinion. The natural tendency of biological

instinct is forbidden to have its name spoken out in our social system, but within the sphere of nature the sexual attraction is warming up. In addition to linking female nature with virgin-like and voluptuous disposition, the intimidating approach of the male lizards toward the female one can implicitly suggest the aggression and

intimidation of the male towards the female in our social system. In fact, the gaze of male lizards upon the female one corresponds to Bill Ashcroft’s discussion of gaze:¹³ The imperial gaze defines the identity of the subject, objectifies it within the identifying system of power relations and confirms its subalterneity and powerlessness. (2001:141)

From this viewpoint, the gaze of the male lizards surely objectifies “the smaller, female lizard,” for the female lizard is described as if threatened. “The imperial gaze” of the male lizards defines the female one as their sexual victim and themselves as predators. In this sense, the poem is the poet’s critique on the

intimidation of the patriarchal oppression towards the female subjectivity. However, the poet renders female subjectivity overwhelmingly transgressive by manipulating her female symbol, the female lizard. Although the female lizard is “smaller,” her

13 Ashcroft, Bill. Post-Colonial Transformation. London: Routledge, 2001.

“red-hot wire” implies that she can give a deadly blow to her aggressors. The poet suggests female identity like the female lizard can be tremendously subversive against various oppressions.

In the last part of this poem, the narrator evokes a colonial history concerning the relationship between invaders and victims to explicate the correlation between the male and female:

Just so the Christians, had as nails, tiny as nails, and glinting,

in creaking armor, came and found it all, not familiar:

no lovers’ walk, no bowers,

no cherries to be picked, no lute music, but corresponding, nevertheless,

to an old dream of wealth and luxury already out of style when they left home—

wealth, plus a brand-new pleasure.

Directly after Mass, humming perhaps L’Homme arme’ or some such tune, they ripped away into the hanging fabric, each out to catch an Indian for himself—

those maddening little women who kept calling, calling to each other ( or had the birds waked up?) and retreating, always retreating, behind it. (91~2)

Here we can understand the so-called “Christians” refer to those western colonizers who attempt to have the world under their subjugation. In the landscape, they look intimidating because they are dressed in the “ creaking armor,” which poses an

inauspicious threat to the whole region. As the narrator further describes these invaders’ intention, we witness they come here to find something they want. They bring no joy, no heart-brightening melody, but plunge themselves into “ an old dream of wealth and luxury.” The invaders obviously regard the landscape as a terrain of profusion to be exploited and exhausted. And we know these invaders take a historical expansion, ranging from the past colonizers to the present visitors who come here to seek new pleasures and invade the landscape by tearing apart its aesthetic sensibility.

These men, after attending Mass, hum some military tune and begin their sexual hunting immediately. Taking advantage of the colonial history, Bishop highlights the irony of aggression in Christians who came here to exploit the place in the past despite their religious belief. And nowadays these men from the western world

continue to come here to exploit this place and its women who thus fall into the pitfall of these male aggressors.

These new invaders’ sexual hunting is to capture Indian women for themselves.

And we witness that these women who could only retreat and retreat further behind the landscape turn out to be something more obscure and mysterious. In a sense, the mythic veil of nature has been combined inextricably with enigmatically female figures at this point. The female can only retreat further and further into the unknown land of depth so as to preserve their integrity. Without doubt, the representations of male invaders continue to exploit, violate, and destroy the feminine delicacy of nature.

The horror of men’s fantasy to regard the female subjectivity as a terrain to exploit, violate, and exhaust surely contains some symbolic implications. Based on Helen Cixous’s argument, we can have a grasp of this situation:¹⁴

14 Cixous, Helene. “ The Laugh of the Medusa.” New French Feminism. Eds. E. Marks and I. De Courtivorn. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P. 245-64.

Men still have everything to say about their sexuality, and everything to write.

For what they have said so far, for the most part, stems from the opposition activity/ passivity, from the power relation between a fantasized obligatory virility meant to invade, to colonize, and the consequential phantasm of woman as a “ dark continent” to penetrate and “ pacify.” (247).

In this male-dominance society, the feminine nature represents the violated and marginalized status of women in general whose destiny is to be categorized as a desired object of sexuality under the male gaze. However, it is intriguing to consider from a different perspective regarding the presentation of the feminized nature in this poem. As “those maddening little women” who are oppressed and intimidated by the male invaders from the western retreat further and further behind nature, the

feminized nature in this poem provides these native women with shelter and

protection from the male aggression. From this perspective, the feminized nature is endowed with the tremendous capacity to counteract the outside malice and threat.

Therefore, the feminized nature can transgress the injustice and meanness from the male aggressors of western civilization and further protect her inhabitants in her sphere of power.

Searching for Female Subjectivity

In the second part of research, I argue Bishop’s strategy to feminize landscape has paved the way for her investigation into the question of female subjectivity in her poems. Obviously, the quest for individual subjectivity as a female as well as a lesbian absolutely plays a dramatic role in several poems of the poet. Based on Brogan’s interpretation concerning Bishop’s poetic strategy, she claims that Bishop in her poems questions “the dominant phallic perspective of our culture” as well as “its

corollary political categories, hierarchies and prejudice”( “Perversity as Voice” 176).

Evidently, Bishop’s poems which deals with the search for her female subjectivity surely derail from the social expectation and contain some political meanings that criticize things of social injustice. And this part of her poems demonstrates the extent of her artistic transgression as a means of asserting her personal voice and belief.

Besides, the research on her search for female subjectivity and transgression will be further combined with time motif in this part as we know she traverses from the past to the present to discover the root of her searching and to retrieve her personal loss.

In this poem “ In the Waiting Room” (159~161), Bishop’s aesthetic of

transgression attempts to interweave time with the urge for her search of identity and meaning. To explicate Bishop’s evoking of the meaning-searching enterprise, Ann Marie Bush also states that the sources of Bishop’s poetry are primarily concerned about “ personal and private experiences,” which can further “ project universal human feelings, emotions, and states of mind” (213).¹⁵ Consequently, in this poem the poet doesn’t only search for her personal female identity, but also intend to search for the common root shared by the female identity as a whole. It is proven that the poet further intends to seek a female subjectivity closely associated with the shifting of time in this poem. Here Bishop presents an gloomier portrait of time linked with personal subjectivity, which arouses a horror of anonymity and uncertainty under the dominion of time. And in this poem time is linked with the devouring volcanoes; both acquire the power to blur, destroy, and eliminate any distinctions of subjectivity:

The inside of a volcano, Black, and full of ashes;

Then it was spilling over

15 Bush, Ann Marie. “Time and Uncertainty in Elizabeth Bishop’s Poems. ” KronoScope Vol. 3.2 ( Fall 2003): 199-215.

In rivulets of fire

Here Bishop presents a gloomier portrait of time linked with personal subjectivity, which arouses a horror of anonymity and uncertainty under the dominion of time.

According to Martin Bidney, Bishop’s “ In the Waiting Room” shows “ the threat of chaos (fiery surges) and the contrasting but equal threat of conscription (rounded shapes) combining to initiate a child into epiphany of terror and wonder” (13).¹⁶ Moreover, it is the landscape of volcanic geography that corresponds to the narrator’s chaos as well as the fear of isolation and dissolution inside. It occurs to me that the blackness of the volcano resembles a black hole, which keeps spilling over and no traces of life and diversity will be uncovered in this dark vacuum.

The dread of falling into adulthood associated with the loss of personal identity is evident when the narrator keeps on:

Suddenly, from inside, came an oh! of pain

—Aunt Consuelo’s voice—not very loud or long.

I wasn’t at all surprised;

even then I knew she was a foolish, timid woman.

I might have been embarrassed, but wasn’t. What took me completely by surprise was that it was me:

16 Bidney, Martin. “ ‘Controlled Panic’: Mastering the Terrors of Dissolution and Isolation in Elizabeth Bishop's Epiphanies.” Style Vol. 34. 3 (Fall 2000): 487-511.

my voice, in my mouth Without thinking at all I was my foolish aunt, I—we—were falling, falling, our eyes glued to the cover of the National Geographical, February, 1918.

The narrator associates herself with her “ foolish aunt” by intermingling two different entities altogether so as to contrive a sense of chaos and anonymity. Since one day she will also reach the age of her “foolish aunt,” the poet has been apprehensive of her precarious identity and the terror of becoming someone like her aunt. Besides, the process of “ falling, falling” also implies the passing of time as the truly unstoppable and irresistible force that is going to consume and plunge the narrator into the waves of blackness and emptiness. By evoking her “eyes glued to the cover of the National Geographic,” the speaker interweaves her identity with the female images of black female Africans with their “ horrifying breasts,” which may suggest the functions of females in a patriarchal culture. As she looks at those black African women, she finds they are all engulfed in the burning flames of anonymity. They are all the same, experiencing a sense of lack as their common root as females, deprived of a sense of individuality. The narrator’s association among herself, her aunt, and those tribal women indicates that historically women have been forced to follow a fixed mode of pathway and lifestyle imposed by the patriarchal dominance throughout the world. As females grow and mature, they can hardly escape this assimilation of ideological control under the influence of socially dominant values.

Therefore, in my view the girl who terms her aunt as a “ foolish woman”

also suggests that her aunt has been brainwashed and integrated into such a horrific

system of patriarchy, which denies a different way of female expression; thus these women become unable to discern their own anonymity and continue to comply with male authority. In fact, we can’t see an obvious oppression of the male dominance upon the female in this poem. However, I argue the controlling power of the patriarchal system is implicit, but overwhelming in this poem. The reason why I attempt to regard the narrator, her aunt and those black women as victims under the male-dominant system lies in the fact that the poet associates herself, her aunt and the horrifying breasts of those black women with the National Geographical. In fact, the National Geographical is all about discovery and its “gaze” upon the Others through its photographs, which becomes similar to the ambition of the colonial past. As we all know, the colonial history represented by the western men is built upon the enterprise of discovering the other lands and their malignant desire to control and define the Others. Likewise, the National Geographical turns out to be a broadcasting means represented by the western male to demonstrate their ability to discover and define the Others through their captured and published pictures of the Others. Therefore, when the narrator claims they are all falling with “their eyes glued to the cover of the National Geographical,” the distance between the photographs of the National Geographical and “we” ( represented as the narrator, her aunt, and all women) becomes blurred. That means the narrator, her aunt and the other women can turn out to be one page in the National Geographical in which they are gazed, discovered and defined by the explorer represented as a primarily male figure. From this perspective, the narrator’s essence becomes interwoven with the black volcano full of ashes and those “black, naked” women with their horrifying breasts, which all reveal their essence as empty and lacking.

Paradoxically, it is this dread of dissolving into nothingness as those adult females who have become that horrifies the narrator. This fear reinforces the poet’s

determination to gain her distinctive female subjectivity, which shall be different from her aunt’s and those black women’s identity. According to Stefan Josson’s promulgation, “ [s]ubjectivity is […] a process best understood in terms of negativity.

It cannot be grasped in pure form except as a lack, a lack that generates a need, which, in turn drives the human agent toward the identifications offered to it by the social milieu, and then away from them” (8~9; original italics).¹⁷ Evidently, as a child the poet finds that her subjectivity will ultimately fall into a vacuum, which has been lacking like those African women and her aunt who have identified themselves with their single and major role assigned by the patriarchal system if she doesn’t

contemplate her sense of identity as a lack. This realization precipitates her to acquire a voice and mind of uniqueness and individuality that belong to her own.

In the following part of the poem, the narrator will continue to struggle with the dread of lack and anonymity, hoping to find a way to solve her problem:

I said to myself: three days and you'll be seven years old.

I was saying it to stop the sensation of falling off the round, turning world.

into cold, blue-black space.

But I felt: you are an I, you are an Elizabeth, you are one of them.

Why should you be one, too?

I scarcely dared to look

17 Jonsson, Stefan. Subject Without Nation: Robert Musil and the History of Modern Identity. Durham:

Duke UP, 2000

to see what it was I was.

I gave a sidelong glance

—I couldn't look any higher—

at shadowy gray knees, trousers and skirts and boots and different pairs of hands lying under the lamps.

Here the narrator reveals her fear of growing up. She apprehends that the process of growing up will only eradicate her sense of self identity. For example, in this stanza she attempts to resist “the sensation of falling off,” falling into the dreadful

commonality shared by women who suffer from anonymity and sense of lack. The narrator further assimilates herself into the volcanic images of horror, emptiness and anonymity. Therefore, we witness she claims that she attempts to escape falling into

“the round, turning world ”and the “cold, blue-black space.” The volcano definitely represents itself as “a round, turning world,” which can annihilate any difference and uniqueness with its devastating swirls. Besides, the “cold, blue-black space” also means a lack of identity once the narrator falls into the black hole of anonymity and dread where the narrator only witnesses herself and the surrounding world being blanketed by darkness and coldness. Therefore, when the distinction among the

narrator, her aunt and all the other women becomes blurred, the narrator can’t help but reveal her tremendous fear. She can’t even recognize who she is exactly and she doesn’t dare to look further, to think of herself as an unique and independent entity. In this passage the narrator addresses her feelings of horror and helplessness regarding her intention of searching for her own subjectivity to us. Interestingly, the narrator makes use of a contrast here to emphasize her sense of dread, helplessness and

emptiness inside. She claims that even “ under the lamp” those objects of “gray knees,

skirts, boots and different pairs of hands” all reveal the same “shadow.” These things should be different, but they all reveal a shadow under the lamp. This situation corresponds to the narrator’s associating among herself, her aunt and all the other women. In fact, they should be different individuals. However, under the threat of overwhelming time, they will all deteriorate into a shadow or vacuum which is empty, dark, and evacuated of specific meanings and colors.

The narrator continues to struggle with her sense of lack and dread of falling into the fate of emptiness and anonymity. She asks herself many questions concerning her identity. Through her aunt, she witnesses that the female are restrained to express themselves openly:

I knew that nothing stranger had ever happened, that nothing stranger could ever happen.

Why should I be my aunt, or me, or anyone?

What similarities

boots, hands, the family voice I felt in my throat, or even the National Geographic

and those awful hanging breasts held us all together

or made us all just one?

How I didn't know any word for it how "unlikely"...

How had I come to be here, like them, and overhear