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.
About the Author
Yves Bonnefoy is a poet, critic, and professor emeritus of comparative poetics at the College de France. In addition to poetry and literary criticism, he has published numerous works of art history and translated into French several of Shakespeare's plays.
