{"product_id":"9781570036378","title":"Understanding Rita Dove","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of the life and art of first African American U.S. poet laureate\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eUnderstanding Rita Dove\u003c\/i\u003e serves as a critical introduction to the poetry of the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who was also the first African American poet laureate of the United States. Through close readings of seven poetry collections, Pat Righelato offers detailed analyses of Rita Dove's thematic concerns and artistic development while bringing to light the musical sense of form and expression of history that permeates Dove's work. While underscoring each collection's distinctive identity, Righelato explores the continuities that link volume to volume, from the earliest chapbooks to Dove's most recent collection, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Smooth.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharting Dove's evolution as a poet, Righelato begins with \u003ci\u003eThe Yellow House on the Corner\u003c\/i\u003e to identify motifs of the mythical, historical, familial, and autobiographical that have become the writer's artistic capital. Dove brings African American experience to the mainstream of American poetry in \u003ci\u003eThomas and Beulah\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eOn the Bus with Rosa Parks.\u003c\/i\u003e Righelato positions Dove as a successor to Robert Lowell in that her preoccupation with family history is exemplary of American culture. Righelato also argues for viewing Dove as markedly international. In particular Righelato illuminates Dove's affinity with the poet Rainer Maria Rilke in a feminist reading of \u003ci\u003eMother Love,\u003c\/i\u003e a volume written in respectful engagement with his \u003ci\u003eSonnets to Orpheus.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of South Carolina Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47062292070640,"sku":"9781570036378","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781570036378_p0.jpg?v=1763792605","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781570036378","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}