Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
Conclusion 180
Notes 183
Bibliography of Seamus Heaney’s Works 198
General Bibliography 199
Index 206
Introduction
1
2 Seamus Heaney
imagery, and I would suggest that Heaney and Derrida follow Yeats’s
idea of the importance of a dialogue between notions of selfhood
and notions of alterity. Ireland as a ‘state of mind’ is a concept that
is transformative of the givens of identity, in any ideological group,
and it is this ongoing transformation that will take the strain of
conflicting ideologies and, possibly, create new structures which will
allow these ideological and cultural positions to interact, intersect
and enter some form of dialogue with each other which may allow
for some dissipation of the conflict.
It is with this idea of taking the strain of conflicting and diverse
ideological positions that I return to the question posed in the first
paragraph of this introduction, as to the raison d’être of this book. I
think, in the light of Heaney’s comments on Foster and Yeats, that
a strand of his thinking can be traced which engages with these
notions of complexity of identity, hybridity and liminality in terms
of the situating of the text of selfhood within the context of one’s
cultural associations and predications. His praise of the methodology
used by Foster also contains the glimmerings of my own modus
operandi in this book, as I will offer parallel analyses of Heaney’s
poetry and prose, the latter being a glaring lacuna in what might be
termed ‘Heaney studies’ over the years. Until now, I would suggest,
Heaney’s prose has been generally used as a preparatory gloss on his
poetry; it has never been subjected to any sustained critique in terms
of its role in Heaney’s overall project. This book will redress this
balance by taking specific themes in his writing, most notably
concerned with issues of identity, belonging, ideology and the role
of the aesthetic with respect to the political, and examine them
through a sustained study of both his poetry and his prose.
Finally, the connections I have made between the disciplines of
historical revisionism and deconstruction presage another thematic
strand of this book, namely the adequation of the ideas of Heaney
and Derrida with respect to the notions of reading, writing, cultural
discourse and ideology. If nothing else, this articulation has the virtue
of being an unploughed part of the Heaney canon, and it also
demonstrates, as I hope to show, that Heaney needs to be addressed
as a cultural thinker as well as an artist in terms of his involvement
in themes so seminal to the cultural narration of a contemporary
form of Irishness. In both his poetry and his prose, Heaney partici-
pates in a transformative discourse which exfoliates the fixed
ideological positions of Catholic-nationalist-republican and
Protestant-loyalist-unionist by probing their borders, their points of
6 Seamus Heaney
absence (see also presence), 7, 20, Bellaghy, 32, 34, 35, 131
52–3, 62, 90, 114–16, 118, 119, Benjamin, Walter, 49
121–2, 127, 128, 130, 160, 161, Bennington, Geoffrey, 35, 144
167, 177 Bhabha, Homi, 141–2
Adorno, Theodor, 23, 49, 68 The Location of Culture, 141
aesthetic (see also poetry), 5, 8, 11, binarism, 7, 17, 20, 22, 25, 30–1,
14–15, 19, 27, 32, 44–5, 48, 56, 36, 37, 39, 41–5, 54, 55, 59,
58, 64, 74–5, 78–9, 95, 99, 102, 62–6, 86, 87, 92, 96, 99, 116,
105–7, 112, 135–6, 138, 147, 124, 135–9, 145, 154–5, 174,
157, 160–3, 168, 170, 171–9 180
aesthetics, 14, 45 Blanchot, Maurice, 7, 25, 28, 50,
Algeria (see also Derrida), 6, 36–7 114–18, 131, 161, 167, 178–9
alterity (see also other), 3, 5, 6, 24, The Gaze of Orpheus, 7, 115
31, 37, 39, 42, 53, 66, 69, 78, The Space of Literature, 7, 115
80, 86, 88–9, 95, 97, 102, 105, bog people, 98–9
107, 109, 122–3, 136, 142, 148, border (se also frontier), 5, 7, 20–7,
150, 152, 177, 180–2 50, 65–9, 86–7, 96, 114, 140–3,
anastomosis, 16–19, 22, 28, 45, 47, 146–9, 152–3, 159–60, 182
49, 52, 54, 72, 74, 78, 82, 85, both/and (see also either/or), 149,
94, 103, 144, 146, 149, 152, 172
171–3, 180, 182 Boyne, Battle of (see also William of
Andrews, Elmer, 9, 84, 94, 97, 184 Orange; Protestantism), 2, 41
Icon Critical Guide, 9 Bradley, Catherine, 32, 38, 42, 52,
Anglo-Saxon, 19, 135 56, 62, 64, 76, 154, 161, 181
Annwn, David, 97 sampler, 32, 38, 42, 52, 56, 62,
Antrim, County, 125 64, 76, 78, 154, 161, 181
Ashcroft, Bill, 138 Brewster, Scott, 88–9
atavism, 31, 43–6, 71–2, 97, 100, Britannic, 155, 162
133 British (see also English), 32, 124,
Atlantic Monthly, 1, 4 148, 153–4, 166
Auseinandersetzung, 14 Broadbridge, Edward, 99
Austen, Jane, 32 Brown, Richard, 169, 172, 182
Bull, John, 15, 22
Bakhtin, Michael, 16, 20, 23 Burns, Robert, 174
Barrell, John, 15, 22 Burris, Sidney, 57
Barrell, John and John Bull (eds)
The Penguin Book of English Caputo, John D., 37
Pastoral Verse, 18 Carson, Ciarán, 49, 134
Barthes, Roland, 34 Catholic (see also Protestant), 4, 5,
bawn (see also Mossbawn), 17, 93, 25–6, 32, 34, 41, 45, 51, 61, 87,
122 92, 97, 99, 101, 104, 109, 134,
Belfast, 34–5, 37, 42, 43, 44, 45, 136, 141, 152, 174
102, 104, 125, 154, 159, 171 Christ, Jesus, 59, 60
206
Index 207
‘Kinship’, 48, 49, 51, 76, ‘Terminus’, 72, 133, 144, 146,
101–2, 137 148, 151–2, 158–9
‘Punishment’, 101, 137 ‘The Disappearing Island’, 119
‘Viking Dublin: Trial Pieces’, ‘The Stone Grinder’, 120
138 ‘The Wishing Tree’, 118
‘Whatever You Say Say The Midnight Verdict, 43, 101
Nothing’, 107, 110 The Place of Writing, 8, 13, 165
Place and Displacement, 13, 32, 38 The Redress of Poetry, 3, 7, 13, 24,
Preoccupations, 6–9, 11–15, 20, 28, 42, 48, 59, 61, 64, 70, 102,
29–30, 36, 41, 65, 71–2, 82, 84, 150, 184
94–6, 99, 121–2, 139, 157, 163, ‘Frontiers of Writing’, 10–11,
164, 180, 184 78, 158
‘Feeling into Words’, 49, 88 ‘Joy or Night: Last Things in
‘In the Country of the Poetry of W. B. Yeats and
Convention’, 19, 24 Philip Larkin’, 52
‘Mossbawn’, 11, 21, 41, 45, 93, The Spirit Level, 7, 56, 101
97, 121–2, 125–6, 129, 131, ‘Postscript’, 61
139, 143, 151, 167, 181 ‘The Flight Path’, 11, 111–13,
Seeing Things, 4, 7, 31, 53, 67, 90, 116
126 ‘The Swing’, 62–3
‘A Haul’, 58 ‘Tollund’, 61–2, 101, 103
‘Glanmore Revisited’, 128, 130 ‘Weighing In’, 60, 84
‘Markings’, 57, 71, 84, 111 Wintering Out, 7, 30, 82–3, 86, 93,
‘The Golden Bough’, 58 100–4, 117, 121, 124, 156
‘The Pitchfork’, 11, 94, 96, 99 ‘A New Song’, 22
‘The Point’, 58 ‘Anahorish’, 20, 24, 97–100,
‘The Pulse’, 58 122, 151
‘Three Drawings’, 58 ‘Broagh’, 20, 24, 97–100, 122,
‘Wheels within Wheels’, 60 151
‘Crossings’, 65, 72 ‘Fodder’, 89
‘Lightenings’, 69, 72, 146 ‘The Other Side’, 11, 29, 90,
‘Settings’, 72, 77 92–6, 99, 172
‘Squarings’, 8, 68, 71–2, 104, ‘The Tollund Man’, 61, 101
111 ‘Toome’, 11, 121–6, 151
Sweeney Astray, 31, 101, 130, 175 ‘Traditions’, 21
The Cure at Troy, 31, 52, 101 hegemony, 7, 75, 123–4, 126, 133
The Government of the Tongue, 7, Herbert, George, 59, 64, 66
9–10, 13, 28, 46, 60, 62, 79, 81, Herbert, Zbigniew, 10, 11
85, 184 Hillis Miller, J., 16, 22, 24
‘Sounding Auden’, 165 The Ethics of Reading, 16
‘The Placeless Heaven: Another history, 1–5, 11–14, 18, 36, 49, 52,
Look at Kavanagh’, 117 55–9, 72, 77, 82, 87, 95, 111,
The Haw Lantern, 7, 9, 10, 26, 40, 113, 115–19, 124, 134, 137–8,
68, 116, 140 145–56, 159, 164, 166, 170
‘A Daylight Art’, 120 hoke, 139–40, 145, 147, 150
‘Alphabets’, 44, 47 home, 17, 33, 36, 39–40, 57–9, 92,
‘Clearances’, 118, 120 95, 97, 108, 112–13, 117–18,
‘From the Frontier of Writing’, 120, 122–6, 131, 136, 139, 148,
30 154, 163, 171, 177, 182
210 Seamus Heaney
Homer, 67, 129–30, 152, 164 James, Clive, 4, 44, 97, 141, 151,
Hopkins, Gerald Manley, 65 156
Hughes, Francis (see also Provisional Jay, Martin, 23
IRA), 74 Joyce, James, 16–18, 44, 151–2, 165
Hughes, Ted, 55, 155 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
hybridity (see also liminality), 5, 17, Man, 44, 97, 152
36, 124, 138–49, 153, 165, 171, Ulysses, 18, 151–2, 165
182 justice, 24, 40, 52, 60–1, 69, 72, 79,
171, 174, 176, 179
identity (see also selfhood) , 2–8, 14,
17–19, 23-29, 32–40, 45, 47, Kavanagh, Patrick, 21, 113
50, 53, 57, 65–6, 69–70, 76, Kearney, Hugh, 155
82–8, 90, 92, 94, 97–100, 104, Kearney, Richard, 66, 88, 155
109, 113, 122–3, 128, 133, 136, Kiberd, Declan, 29, 30
141–8, 152, 165, 173–82 Inventing Ireland, 29
ideology (see also consciousness; Kingsmills massacre, 77, 176
culture), 5, 7, 25, 33, 38, 41–5, Kraftfeldt (see also field of force), 23,
66–7, 71, 81, 83, 86–7, 90–1, 25, 56, 62–3, 73, 76, 105
97–8, 101, 104, 109, 112, Kristeva, Julia, 52
115–24, 132, 134–5, 138, 144,
147, 149, 152–5, 159–63, 168,
Lacan, Jacques, 34
172–6, 180
lace, Brussels, 52–3, 60, 62, 79
imagination, 25, 37, 53, 55, 59, 63,
land, 15, 24, 45, 82, 93, 98, 107,
70, 92, 94, 104, 107, 117, 123,
115, 120, 123, 134–5, 141–7,
139, 164–5, 184
171
immanence, 47, 61, 92, 176–8
language, 2, 4, 8, 14–23, 29, 31,
inclusiveness, 3, 25, 28, 42, 56, 75,
33–7, 41, 51–3, 57, 65, 69–81,
97, 103, 118, 134, 141, 145,
84–8, 90, 92–6, 101–2, 112,
156, 163
117, 121–7, 130–44, 147–8,
internment, 67
intersubjectivity, 3, 24, 43, 46, 65, 150–5, 159–69, 172–5, 179–84
89, 90 Latin, 19–20, 22, 40, 45, 117, 130,
Ireland (see also identity), 2–8, 13, 18, 138
20, 25–6, 29–32, 38–40, 49–51, Levinas, Emmanuel (see also ethics),
62, 66, 76–7, 80, 82, 86–90, 7, 37, 48, 76, 88, 89–95, 102,
92–3, 98–105, 112, 118, 123–5, 106, 109–10, 168, 180
128, 131–2, 135, 137, 140, 142, liminality (see also hybridity), 5, 7,
145–59, 166, 168, 170–6 24–7, 36, 143–8, 153
Ireland, Northern, 2, 6, 8, 13, 25–6, Lloyd, David, 98
31–2, 38–40, 50–1, 62, 76–7, locus, 18, 42, 45, 55, 121, 126–31,
80, 82, 86–7, 90, 92, 98–100, 150, 164, 167
103, 105, 112, 118, 125, 128, London, 36, 49, 143, 149
140, 142, 149, 153, 172, 176 Londonderry, 112
Irelandness, prior (see also Longley, Edna, 50, 82, 87, 134
quincunx), 150 Lowell, Robert, 161
Irishness, 1–10, 14, 16–22, 24, 29, loyalism, 5, 32, 99, 104, 171
31–9, 43, 46, 51, 55–8, 66, 84, lyric, 14, 26, 34, 60, 62, 130
88, 90, 95–9, 102, 107, 112–13,
117, 122–6, 130–56, 158, MacNeice, Louis, 21, 83, 150–3
165–6, 171–8 Carrickfergus Castle, 151
Index 211