Doktori Disszertáció

DOKTORI DISSZERTÁCIÓ THE “IRISHNESS” OF CONTEMPORARY IRISH POETRY. PLACE, HISTORY AND CULTURAL CONTINUITY IN CONTEMPORARY IRISH POETRY WRITTEN IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE DOLMÁNYOS PÉTER TÉMAVEZETO: DR. FERENCZ GYOZO PHD. 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 3 1.1. CONTEXTS 5 1.2. PRELIMINARIES 12 2. VARIETIES OF IRISHNESS 17 2.1. DIVISIONS 18 2.2. PLURALITY 23 3. PLACE 28 3.1. LANDSCAPES 32 3.1.1. SOUTH 33 3.1.2. NORTH 41 3.2. THE URBAN WORLD 45 3.2.1. SOUTH: DUBLIN 47 3.2.2. NORTH 59 3.2.2.1. BELFAST 59 3.2.2.2. (LONDON)DERRY 73 3.3. THE COUNTRY 75 3.3.1. SOUTH 75 3.3.2. NORTH 84 3.4. DIVISION PROPER: THE BORDER 91 3.5. BEYOND DIVISION 98 3.5.1. THE WEST 98 3.5.2. ALL-IRELAND PERSPECTIVES 105 4. HISTORY 107 4.1. COMMUNAL HISTORY 111 4.1.1. THE PAST 111 4.1.2. THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD 116 4.1.2.1. THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 116 4.1.2.2. NORTHERN IRELAND – THE TROUBLES 125 4.2. PERSONAL HISTORIES 155 4.2.1. FATHERS 155 4.2.1.1. SEAMUS HEANEY – FARMER 156 1 4.2.1.2. MICHAEL LONGLEY – SOLDIER 158 4.2.1.3. JOHN MONTAGUE – EXILE 162 4.2.1.4. PAUL DURCAN – JUDGE 174 4.2.2. MOTHERS 181 4.2.2.1. JOHN MONTAGUE – MOTHER AS ABSENCE 181 4.2.2.2. SEAMUS HEANEY – MOTHER AS PRESENCE 185 4.2.2.3. DEREK MAHON – MOTHER EMBRACED AT LAST 187 4.3. IMAGINATIVE HISTORIES : OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVES 188 5. CULTURAL CONTINUITY 201 5.1. COMMUNITIES 205 5.1.1. DIVISIONS 205 5.1.2. RECONCILIATIONS 208 5.2. LANGUAGE 210 5.3. RETURNS AND REPOSSESSIONS 219 6. CONCLUSIONS 231 BIBLIOGRAPHY 240 2 1. INTRODUCTION “The time is coming fast, if it isn’t already here, when the question ‘Is So-and-So really an Irish writer?’ will clear a room in seconds.” (Mahon quoted by Haughton in Corcoran 1992, 87) Derek Mahon’s comment from 1974 indicates a sense of tiredness with questions concerning the nature of the Irishness of particular literary figures, yet the very fact that a prominent Irish poet felt the urge to respond to their presence suggests that such questions are present and asked. The question formulated in that particular form is indeed an unfortunate one since it seeks to establish the relation of a writer to a prescribed norm, which is neither wise nor desirable an approach. The reading and interpretation of literature is an intelligent affair which accepts the primacy of the work rather than that of preconceived ideas or even ideologies; criticism is supposed to begin with the text and draw conclusions after instead of employing texts to justify ideas and opinions formulated prior to and often independently of the literary work in discussion. What Mahon rebels against is the constraining frame of categories imposed on the essentially free artistic spirit, recalling the archetypal artist figure immortalised by Joyce. A study under the title “The ‘Irishness’ of Contemporary Irish Poetry” then appears a strange case in this way since it operates in the halo of a term dangerously related to what has just been designated constraining. The present study, however, takes a different course than what is rejected by Mahon’s opinion: it sets out to examine the components of a heritage which is given, therefore not the subject of such enquiries as Mahon proposes. The focus is on the relation of the chosen representative poets to territorial, historical and cultural aspects and elements of their heritage, with the assumption of their acceptance of Irishness as a condition of their existence and work: Irishness is the foundation on which these poetries are built and the components of this foundation form the present subject of scrutiny. Contemporary Irish poetry written in the English language offers an exciting body of literature and one which is distinctive from other poetries written in the same language exactly for its Irish dimension. According to Dillon Johnston the technical aspect of this poetry is characterised by a Joycean dramatic poetry of subtle manipulations of tone (Johnston 53-73), which is accepted as a starting point for this investigation. The present project, however, concentrates on thematic considerations since the prominence of place, an entanglement with matters historical and an insistence on cultural particulars outline a special territory with distinct features which can be comfortably identified with a specific Irish 3 context and provide a sufficient descriptive framework for the chosen field of contemporary Irish poetry. The term ‘contemporary’ requires some explanation since its scope is not immediately self-explanatory. In the context of this study contemporary refers to the second part of the twentieth century, beginning with the 1960s and lasting to the end of the century. Any such division of the continuous flow of time involves arbitrary lines of demarcation without the possibility of all-inclusiveness; however, the 1960s were a decade in the history of the island which may be seen as a convenient yet not too suspicious point of departure. The decade saw the beginnings of profound changes in the Republic of Ireland and the significant increase of internal tensions in Northern Ireland which finally led to an outburst of violence, thus in both parts of the island historical events signalled the arrival of a new era. Political and social changes always resonate in the cultural sphere too and in the case of both South and North the 1960s saw the emergence of significant major poetic voices partly parallel to and partly in the wake of the changes. The last forty years of the twentieth century then may be seen as a period characterised by a sufficient degree of consistency to set it apart from what went before it. The adjective ‘Irish’ also needs some clarification despite its apparent simplicity – or exactly for that. A more thorough investigation of the constituents of the concept follows in the chapter ‘Varieties of Irishness’ yet the basics must be clarified at the outset. The principal problem of terminology arises from the double use of the term Ireland: this word can denote a spatial category of an island and a political one of a country, and there is no one-to-one correspondence between the two categories. There is an overlap yet this indicates the presence not only of certain common features but of differences too, and the latter produces divisions of various kinds. Rather than subscribing to ethnic or political dimensions the present study employs the term Irish to designate a cultural identity with its inherent plurality of reference. This allows for an all-Ireland perspective, the use of the spatial reference of the word Ireland rather than that of the political, to incorporate various groups identifying themselves and identified as Irish and insisting on their experience as representative of Irishness even when there are palpable differences among them in terms of certain aspects which occasionally amount even to oppositional points of view. 4 1.1. CONTEXTS Modern Irish history offers an easily identifiable date as a basic reference point for an investigation of the contemporary scene. This date is that of the establishment of the Irish Free State and of Northern Ireland and this very date embodies a significant fact about the Irish context: it is considered both the beginning of independence and of partition at the same time. The date should not be blamed for creating divisions since those were already present before 1922; the raising of these divisions onto an official level, however, can be traced back to the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in December 1921 and taking effect in the following January. The early years of the southern state were characterised by efforts to shake off the unfavourable heritage of the long colonial relationship with Britain and to revive a distinct Irish culture rooted in the language, Catholicism and a predominantly rural society. The principal mastermind of the ideology of a Gaelic Ireland was Eamon de Valera, who finally came to power in 1932, after his open dissatisfaction with the treaty, his participation in the failure of the Republican side in the Civil War and successive imprisonment. His ideal of the Irish state is concisely outlined in his radio broadcast on St. Patrick’s Day in 1943: That Ireland which we dreamed of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis of right living, of a people who were satisfied with frugal comfort and devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit; a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with sounds of industry, the romping of sturdy children, the contests of athletic youths, the laughter of comely maidens; whose firesides would be the forums of the wisdom of serene old age. (de Valera quoted in Corcoran 1997, 59) This was the vision but the reality had a less enchanting set of parameters: economic underdevelopment, heavy reliance on the British market in spite of the generally antagonistic relation towards the bigger island, the cultural and intellectual repression of the country by the special power of the Catholic Church codified even in articles of the constitution, wide-scale poverty, emigration and harsh censorship were the most salient features of the early decades of the newly independent southern state. 5 The decision of the leaders of the independent Ireland to remain neutral during the Second World War had far-reaching consequences for the people of the country. Though open conflict was kept away from its land, neutrality at the same time increased the isolation of the country, requiring an even greater degree of self-sufficiency which the country was hopeless to fulfil.

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