Knowing One's Place in Contemporary Irish and Polish Poetry: Zagajewski, Mahon, Heaney, Hartwig

Description

Are we allowed to choose where we belong? What pressures make us feel that we should belong somewhere? This book brings together four major poets-Heaney, Mahon, Zagajewski, and Hartwig-who ask themselves these questions throughout their lives. They start by assuming that we can choose not to belong, but know this is easier said than done. Something in them is awry, leading them to travel, emigrate, and return dissatisfied with all forms of belonging. Writer after writer has suggested that Polish and Irish literature bear some uncanny similarities, particularly in the twentieth century, but few have explored these similarities in depth. Ireland and Poland, with their tangled histories of colonization, place a large premium upon knowing one's place. What happens, though, when a poet makes a career out of refusing to know her place in the way her culture expects? This book explores the consequences of this refusal, allowing these poets to answer such questions through their own poems, leading to surprising conclusions about the connection of knowledge and belonging, roots and identity. Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: The margins of Europe—a new comparison History/Histories Romantic identity The postcoloniality problem The problem of identity; identity as problem Lives and narratives Chapter 1 The dynamic ideal and the protean self: Adam Zagajewski Chapter 2 Figuring otherness in the work of Adam Zagajewski Chapter 3 Belonging on the edge: Derek Mahon’s outsider poetics Chapter 4 Inhabiting the earth: Derek Mahon’s dissonances and harmonies Chapter 5 Belonging as mastery in the poetry of Seamus Heaney Chapter 6 Examining the structures of selfhood: Seamus Heaney Chapter 7 Holding one’s self outside: Julia Hartwig Chapter 8 Learning to speak from inside: Julia Hartwig Conclusion: Knowing one’s sel Bibliography Index