The Unheimlich Self in Modernity: Recreating meaning through poetry By Jill M. O’Mahony M.A. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Waterford Institute of Technology Research Supervisor: Dr Tom Boland Submitted to Waterford Institute of Technology, June, 2013. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. iv DECLARATION ................................................................................................................. v ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE: Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 2 Theory ......................................................................................................................... 3 Poetry .......................................................................................................................... 5 Method ....................................................................................................................... 6 Poetry in the Social Arena ........................................................................................... 7 Chapter Structure ..................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER TWO: Experiencing Modern Identities .......................................................... 16 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 17 Classifications of Modernity ..................................................................................... 18 Liminality, Permanent Liminality and Sacra ............................................................. 27 The Court Society ...................................................................................................... 37 Sacra and Masks ....................................................................................................... 42 Masks and Identity .................................................................................................... 43 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 45 CHAPTER THREE: A Postcolonial Acknowledgement of Unheimlich ............................. 47 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 48 Postcoloniality and the Postcolonial Subject ............................................................ 49 Hybridisation, Homelessness & Heteroglossia ......................................................... 58 Experience and Postcoloniality ................................................................................. 63 Colonialism ................................................................................................................ 64 Colonial Histories ...................................................................................................... 67 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 82 CHAPTER FOUR: Formative Poetic Discourses .............................................................. 84 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 85 Beyond Form: What is Poetry? ................................................................................. 86 Allegory ..................................................................................................................... 89 The Alibi-for-Being and The Surplus ......................................................................... 94 Experience and Temporality ..................................................................................... 97 Reader Response and the Ritual of Poetry ............................................................. 102 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 105 CHAPTER FIVE: A Methodological Search for Meaning .............................................. 107 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 108 Epistemological Background and Structure ............................................................ 110 Social Constructionism ............................................................................................ 116 Narrative Reality ..................................................................................................... 119 Data and Textual Choices ........................................................................................ 122 Literary Criticism and Analysis ................................................................................ 126 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 133 CHAPTER SIX: Resolving Unheimlich ........................................................................... 135 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 136 The Khôra and/or The Abyss ................................................................................... 137 Authentic Meaning and Responsibility ................................................................... 141 Subjective Rationalisation ....................................................................................... 143 Land, Community and Responsibility ...................................................................... 145 Meaning in Modernity ............................................................................................ 148 As The Poets Meet The Abyss ................................................................................. 150 Restoring Meaning .................................................................................................. 152 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 155 CHAPTER SEVEN: Patrick Kavanagh and Unheimlich Postcolonial Experience ........... 157 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 158 Dublin’s Literati: Inauthentic Dasein and Court Society in the Irish Free State ...... 164 Unheimlich or The (not so) Jolly Beggarman and the Abyss ................................... 174 Experience, Imagination and Liminality .................................................................. 177 Answerability, Allegory and Answerable Allegory .................................................. 185 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 187 CHAPTER EIGHT: Eavan Boland: An Experiential Search for Meaning ........................ 189 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 190 ii Exiled and Unheimlich ............................................................................................. 192 Unheimlich and the Myth of Fixed History ............................................................. 197 History and the ‘They-World’ .................................................................................. 203 The Disembodied Self ............................................................................................. 206 Experience as a Mode of Subversion ...................................................................... 209 Conclusion: The Poet as Master of Ceremonies ..................................................... 213 CHAPTER NINE: Rex Lee Jim: Converging Cultures and the Meaning of Land ............ 216 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 217 Identity .................................................................................................................... 220 Cultural Convergence .............................................................................................. 224 Land ......................................................................................................................... 234 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 240 CHAPTER TEN: Joy Harjo: Alienation and the loss of Metaphor ................................. 241 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 242 The Potential in Poetic Metaphor ........................................................................... 245 Postcoloniality and Violence ................................................................................... 255 Tradition and Community ....................................................................................... 257 Language as Political Tool ....................................................................................... 261 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................