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Adaptation and Ekphrasis in the Poetry of Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon

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Transforming Texts: Adaptation and Ekphrasis in the poetry of Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon. Kay Cunningham Submitted for a PhD in Contemporary Poetry Department of English Literature The University of Sheffield. October 2011 2 Abstract This thesis will explore the historical inheritance and use of adaptation and ekphrasis in the poetry of Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon. Both poets include other texts in their work to perpetuate dialogues on history, aesthetics and poetic form, using images, symbols and formal structures to question what poetry can or should do. Looking at the revisionary power of language this thesis will turn to examples of adaptation and revision in the work of each poet. In the poetry of Mahon, it will show how ekphrasis engages with questions of history and aesthetics through the relationship between visual and verbal forms. The result is a poetry that develops temporal and spatial qualities connected to the poet's sense of self and to his philosophical and intellectual concerns for poetry. In his later collections, ekphrasis contributes to Mahon's metaphysical landscapes as they resist the symbolic or unified vision of cultural archetypes to focus on the 'harsh realities' of a contemporary world at war. In the poetry of Muldoon, the visual and verbal components of language develop a conscious boundary between the image and the ideological and historical dialogues that surround it. Muldoon develops stories out of objects that establish a dialogue on the formal qualities of language and of the poet's relation to it. His poetry self-consciously engages with the structural and conceptual problems of representation, adapting the ideas of philosophers, writers and poets to develop a poetry that expresses what it cannot state. His resistant form demonstrates a responsibility to both himself and the present time in which he is writing. /UNIVERSITY [OF SHEFFIELD LIBRARY III Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. v Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... vi 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 7 2. 'Some Notional Interface': Myth and Metamorphosis in the Poetry of Paul Muldoon and Derek Mahon .................................................................................. 21 2.1 Myth and Transformation ........................................................................ 22 2.2 Figuring Echoes ....................................................................................... 31 2.3 Tithonus: The Mythic'Everyman' ........................................................... 37 2.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 55 3. The Art of Poetry: Ekphrasis and Revision in Derek Mahon ....................... 57 3.1 'Courtyards in Belfast': Revising the ekphrastic tradition ...................... 58 3.2 'An urn full of explosives': Mahon's Historical Vision ......................... 72 3.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 90 4. Harbouring History - old for new in Derek Mahon's Harbour Lights .......... 92 4.1 Changing Perspectives: Representation and the Irish Landscape ............ 95 IV 4.2 'My soul silence too is architecture': Poems out of place ..................... 102 4.3 Old Object, New Image: Imploding the female form ........................... 116 4.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 127 5. Between Self and Citizenship: Forming Potential in the Poetry of Paul Muldoon .............................................................................................................. 130 5.1 Parables of Self and Nation in the Poetry of Paul Muldoon .................. 130 5.2 Representations of Home: The Embodied Figure of Speech ................ 132 5.3 The 'instinctual' life of form .................................................................. 152 5.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 166 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 168 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 172 v Acknowledgements The writing of this thesis has been a long and difficult process, and I am certain I would not have reached the end without the help and support of family, friends and colleagues. In completing this work, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Matthew Campbell who has been a constant source of advice and encouragement. His feedback on later drafts of this thesis provided at rapid speed went beyond the call of duty and I am grateful for all of his much needed support. My thanks also go to Professor Adam Piette, who has supported me throughout the various extension requests needed to get this finished and to the Department of English Literature more broadly for providing a much needed fee waiver. This PhD would not have been possible without it. I would like to thank Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon, whose impact on my life is beyond words! Closer to home, my thanks also go to my parents, who have supported me throughout my studies, giving up their time to help with childcare and to offer constant words of encouragement. My thanks also go to my in-laws, David and Irene, who have offered their time freely when needed to help out with the constant juggling of home, work and PhD commitments that have been necessary to finish this piece of work. This thesis owes a particular debt to my husband Stuart and my son Tom. I have no words adequate to the part they have played in maintaining my humour and my focus when things have not gone according to plan. Their unwavering belief in me and their support of me at all times has given me the strength of mind to keep going and to believe in myself. Vl Abbreviations The following abbreviations have been used for books written by Derek Mahon: A Antarctica (1985) CD Courtyards in Delft (1981) CP Collected Poems (1999) HBN The Hunt by Night (1982) HL Harbour Lights (2005) J Journalism: Selected Prose P Poems 1962-1978 (1979) SP Selected Poems (1991) Ad Adaptations (2006) NSP New Selected Poems (2011) The following abbreviations have been used for book written by Paul Muldoon: NW New Weather (1973) M Mules (1977) WBL Why Brownlee Left (1980) Q Quoof (1983) MTB Meeting the British (1987) Ma Madoc (1990) AC The Annals of Chile (1994) H Hay (1998) TIl To Ireland, I (2000) P Poems: 1968-1998 (2001) MSG Moy Sand and Gravel (2002) HoL Horse Latitudes (2006) EOP The End of the Poem (2006) 1. Introduction This thesis explores the use of adaptation and ekphrasis in the poetry of Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon. It looks in particular at the way in which these poets borrow, adapt and transform the work of past writers and artists to develop their own poetic. Even in the early works of both poets, the extent to which they rely on a wide variety of intertextual forms establishes the presence of the past as a central aspect of their poetic. Nightcrossing, published in 1968 was to be the first in a long line of publications in which Mahon explored various forms of intertextuality; allusion, quotation, adaptation, ekphrasis, revision. In addition to the diverse range of intertextual material in his collections he is a seasoned translator as his 2006 publication, Adaptations demonstrates, with translations of Ovid, Sophocles, Pasolini, Valery, Jaccottet and Baudelaire, to name but a few of those covered within the collection. Whilst intertextuality may be an intrinsic part of his poetry it is also inherently problematic, bringing with it the unavoidable question of why he relies so extensively on external texts, what they contribute to his poetry and how they can be understood in light of his tireless propensity to revise his own work. Mahon's revisions and adaptations move beyond the repetition of a past form to include extensive revisions of his own poems. These are frequently re-named between collections, either by means of an entirely new title or a protraction of the original. In addition to revisions of this nature, Mahon has been known to remove poems completely from his body of work. His Collected Poems and more recently his New Collected Poems have seen the disappearance of a number of poems. In addition, individual poems are displaced in both his Collected and New Collected either through a change to where they appear or through a revision of their title or content. In many cases individual poems appear amongst earlier poems, rather than adhering to the collection in which they first arise. Furthermore, revisions of poems often include amended titles, some of which are protracted versions of the original, 'In Carrowdore Churchyard' has become 'Carrowdore' for example, whilst some are given entirely new titles, as is the case with 'Shorelines' in Harbour Lights which has become 'Sand Studies' in Mahon's 8 New Collected Poems. When approaching Mahon's poetry then it is equally important to understand his use of intertexuality in light not only of his literary borrowing from others, but in the self conscious revisions of his own past. Muldoon's use ofintertextuality is equally extensive. His poetry and his prose incorporate
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