Seamus Heaney’s Regionalism

Abstract

Each person in Ulster lives first in Ulster of actual present, and then in one or other Ulster of mind. --Heaney (Place and Displacement 4) [W]hile literary scene in which provinces revolve around centre is demonstrably Copernican one, task of talent is to reverse things to Ptolemaic condition. The writer must reenvisage region as original point. --Heaney (The Regional Forecast 13) In ways that are only just now beginning to be realized, best writers from Philip Hobsbaum's Belfast Group (1963-66), such as Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Stewart Parker, and Bernard MacLaverty, have articulated regional literature that interacted fruitfully with regional literatures all over British and Irish archipelago, including Scottish, Welsh, and regional English, and with regional writers from America, such as Robert Frost. The literary devolution that comprises largely untold story of twentieth-century literature suggests viability of regionalism generally and decline in dominance of London-centered literature. The imaginative efforts of series of Northern Irish writers beginning in early twentieth century have led to establishment of regional, bicultural, and finally trans-cultural literature that has devolved aesthetically, albeit as special case, from British and Irish literature. This regional literature can be placed alongside that developing in Scotland, Wales, and parts of England outside Home Counties, such as northern England. R. P. Draper has recently discussed how, during course of twentieth century, places like Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Hull became much more regional capitals of still urban, but no longer [solely a] London-based literary activity. Many of best English poets came from regions and maintained non-metropolitan, or even anti-metropolitan outlook. (Regional 161) We can easily add Belfast to this catalog of regional literary activity in United Kingdom, although it is an anomaly, geographically detached from British mainland and profoundly bicultural in way that no other major British city is, including Glasgow. Although not identified as specific region in T. S. Eliot's argument about importance of maintaining regional culture in United Kingdom, Northern Ireland nonetheless accords with his description of region or satellite culture: the satellite exercises considerable influence upon stronger culture; and so plays larger part in world at large than it could in isolation (128). As evidence of this influence of Northern Irish culture on English culture, Neil Corcoran argues that the Troubles beginning in 1968 have been the single most influential factor on subsequent history [...] of contemporary 'English' (qtd. in Stevenson 255). Far from being provincial, Northern Irish literature is actually regional in an expansive sense of term, astonishingly plural and cosmopolitan in ways that far surpass some Irish and British literature. Only time will tell if province will be incorporated into Republic of Ireland, but for now, its literature exists in fragile and fascinating moment, redolent with hope for its future. (1) Beginning in 1960s, Northern Irish poet Seamus Heaney began developing regionally based poetry by analyzing his literary predecessors in province, elsewhere in United Kingdom, and even in United States, through series of book reviews and essays. Although Heaney is powerful literary critic, his criticism has been either largely neglected in favor of his poetry or read primarily to explain his poetry. Thankfully, countervailing trajectory has recently emerged. For example, Eugene O'Brien has argued that poet's prose is central to his developing project (Searches 10) and should be considered as such, rather than following usual procedure, which is to see it as a meta-commentary on his poetry. …