The Double Vision of Manannan

I'm thinking about notions of geography in contemporary Irish poetry, particularly the relationship between physical and cultural spaces and what happens when those spaces are traversed. Reading very early Irish poetry (8th C.) with post-1950's poetry we see that concern over contact and interaction with other places and cultures is continuous through Irish poetry in general (not missing the in-between, of course, for poets like Yeats were certainly interested in these matters as well) and I'm wondering how such notions of geography are transformed and refigured in contemporary poety. That is, the concern and sometimes anxiety is continuous, not necessarily a method of approaching it. It is a theme, simply, and I'm wondering how it appears in contemporary poetry. I'm not so much focused on a comparison but I will use older poetry as a reference point. I'm working against the idea that an interest in and anxiety over border-crossing is a distinctly modern phenomenon and correlates directly with the economic and political 'opening' of Ireland after 1950. Certainly these events--Whittaker's radical re-ordering of the economy, the loosening of censorship, joining of the EEC and EU--are important for understanding the development of notions of geography and traversal, but I want to look at them as coincident factors, not causal ones (as is casually assumed in many surveys of Irish poetry). I'll be looking at how critics of contemporary poetry address these issues as well.

Types of Border-Crossing/Geographical Transversal:

-invasion (sexual, violent, disruptive)
-emigration (poverty, loss, diaspora)
-cultural (exchange, interaction)
-political (colonization, settlement, attending cultural transformation and redefinition)

*Sea as site of transition and transmission--in the 8th century poem "The Double Vision of Manannan," the sea is described as a reflection of the land, as each feature of the sea (waves, fish) is doubly an aspect of the land (blossoms, sheep, respectively). This poem complicates the idea of the sea as a no-space and figures it as a transitional one that is intimately related to the land.*

Notes

More notes for now. I'm testing out a new work schedule that will hopefully mean more posting here.

1. Ciaran Carson: heroin, Japanese culture, violence, phantoms of history showing up as inverted archtypes (very weird; quite disturbing to the Four-Green-Fields sensibility), also heavily sexual. A very chaotic feel.

2. Three camps on Ireland in the 1950's: nothing happened of note and the whole culture was dead; the changes of the 1960's were not as sudden as they appeared and in fact began the decade before; the 1950's were alive and well--you just have to know where to look (i.e. NOT in the Church's iron grip on the government).

3. Wheelock's Latin: It's all about hero-worship. Sentences to translate are simplified quotations from Cicero and frequently involve lessons from the past to instruct good habits (study hard! respect the opinions of your instructors but also form your own! wisdom is better than money! I feel like a first-grader). Dr. Ancient Cynic (Dr. A.C. from now on) is continually grumbling about the status of Cicero in Latin studies. It's amusing. Also amusing is his constant disappointment in his pupil. Oh, well.

P.S.

One needn't play super-nice here. I'm far more concerned about intellectual pursuits than I am politeness, and since I will have mainly academic readers, language will be highly specialized.

Have fun, now. Flesh wounds, only, please. :)

List

I'd like Fire and Forge to serve a couple of purposes. One of them, of course, will be to write about and elaborate on the things I'm reading; in preparation, though, I'd like also to take notes here. Since I'm trying to write everyday, most of these entries, at least at first, will be notes or questions to be elaborated later.

I'm compelled to do so by Benjamin, in the Baudelaire chapter of Arcades, which reads like a collection of academic notes. Today I've been making lists in the margins, borrowing from Bakhtin, of the kinds of utterances Benjamin collects in this chapter. I'm struck by how much these utterances resemble artifacts: traces of time and place.

argument
question
reference
quotation
plan
comparison
note
instructions to self (as if into a tape recorder)
topic for discussion
biography
description of process
correspondence
performance

The hero of these utterances, Baudelaire; though I wonder how much the piece can be said to be about Baudelaire. Its form is not too easily made invisible so as to get out of the hero's way.

Also subject matter:

psychoanalysis
Hugo
Poe
stars
Catholicism
personality
form
biography

Welcome

Welcome to Fire and Forge. I'm a third-year graduate student in Cultural and Critical Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. My focus is Contemporary Irish Poetry (1950-), and my accompanying interests include (but are not limited to) imperialism, postcoloniality, and children's lit.

Currently reading:

Benjamin, The Arcades Project
Ciaran Carson, The Twelfth of Never
Dermot Keogh, The Lost Decade: Ireland in the 1950s.

Posts soon to arrive, but I invite questions in the meantime.

Slainte!