6533b81ffe1ef96bd1277e07
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Ambivalent Déjà-vu: World War II in the poetry of the Northern Irish Troubles
Charles I. Armstrongsubject
Cultural StudiesLiteratureSocial PsychologyPoetrybusiness.industrymedia_common.quotation_subjectWorld War IIExperimental and Cognitive PsychologyArtVDP::Humaniora: 000::Litteraturvitenskapelige fag: 040::Engelsk litteratur: 043ElegyAmbivalenceVictimisationlanguage.human_languageIrishDéjà vulanguagebusinessVDP::Humaniora: 000::Litteraturvitenskapelige fag: 040media_commondescription
This article addresses how the poetry of the Northern Irish Troubles enters into a dialogue with the memory of World War II. Poems by Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and Sinéad Morrissey are analysed, showing how World War II is a controversial source of comparison for these poets. While World War II provides important ways of framing the suffering and claustrophobia of the Northern Irish conflict, evident differences also mean that such comparisons are handled warily and with some irony. The poems are highly self-conscious utterances that seek to unsettle and develop generic strategies in the light of traumatic suffering. This essay draws on Michael Rothberg’s concept of multidirectional memory, and it also makes use of Alison Landsberg’s notion of prosthetic memory in order to highlight how Seamus Heaney in particular makes use of the World War II memories mediated by popular culture to respond to the Troubles.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-02-01 | Memory Studies |