Northern Irish Poetry and Domestic Space

Northern Irish Poetry and Domestic Space explores why houses, in some ways the most private of spaces, have taken up such visibly public positions in the work of a range of poets from Northern Ireland: Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon and Medbh McGuckian. It reveals the ways in which poet [...]
Visa längre beskrivning

Northern Irish Poetry and Domestic Space explores why houses, in some ways the most private of spaces, have taken up such visibly public positions in the work of a range of poets from Northern Ireland: Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon and Medbh McGuckian. It reveals the ways in which poetry set in and around houses has reflected the intimate, pervasive nature of Northern Ireland's territorial politics, but it also argues that the public side of these spaces only constitutes one part of their story. The attributes of houses that are frequently brought to the fore by poets are their privacy and containment, as if they are braced against the currents of public events. In this way, houses have affinities with lyric poetry: both offer a personal space for private expression, and both can provide a position from which to engage with the world.