Prose
Yves Bonnefoy (1923-2016), a major poet, was equally a seminalessayist and thinker. This second and final volume of the "Yves Bonnefoy Reader", contains what he regarded as his foundational essays, as well asa generous selection of essays from all periods translated into Englishfor the first time. Subjects include comparative French and Englishpoetics, Shakespeare's theatre, the paintings of Piero della Francescaand Poussin, the sculpture of Bernini, Mozart's operas, a re-assessmentof Rimbaud, the impact of photography on art, and much more. Therange is broad, but the metaphysical challenge is the same: to affirmpresence, and finitude, against all forms of life-sapping conceptualthought. Language may have become suspect, but these essays affirmthe "project of hope" that was Bonnefoy's from the outset.
A range of translators contributes, from the editors whose workon Bonnefoy is celebrated and of long standing, to Iain Bamforth, Michael Bishop, Hilary Davies, Jennie Feldman, Emily Grosholz, Mark Hutchinson, Steven Jaron, Viviane Lowe, Hoyt Rogers, John Taylor and Ahren Warner.
A range of translators contributes, from the editors whose workon Bonnefoy is celebrated and of long standing, to Iain Bamforth, Michael Bishop, Hilary Davies, Jennie Feldman, Emily Grosholz, Mark Hutchinson, Steven Jaron, Viviane Lowe, Hoyt Rogers, John Taylor and Ahren Warner.
About the author
Yves Bonnefoy, celebrated translator and critic, is widely considered the most important and influential French poet since World War II. Named to the College de France in 1981 to fill the chair left vacant by the death of Roland Barthes, Bonnefoy was the first poet honored in this way since Paul Valery. Winner of many awards, including the Prix Goncourt in 1987 and the Hudson Review's Bennett Award in 1988, he is the author of six critically acclaimed books of poetry.
Bonnefoy's poems have appeared in English in the "New Yorker", "Paris Review", "Partisan Review", and other journals. He is editor of "Mythologies" and author of "In the Shadow's Light", "The Act and the Place of Poetry", and "The Lure and the Truth of Painting", all published by the University of Chicago Press.
Bonnefoy's poems have appeared in English in the "New Yorker", "Paris Review", "Partisan Review", and other journals. He is editor of "Mythologies" and author of "In the Shadow's Light", "The Act and the Place of Poetry", and "The Lure and the Truth of Painting", all published by the University of Chicago Press.