This dissertation will examine the works of five contemporary Northern Irish poets who lived through the Troubles, a period of intense sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about thirty years from the late 1960s until the late 1990s. Ciaran Carson, Medbh McGuckian, Paul Muldoon, Colette Bryce, and Leontia Flynn each write in different experimental modes to express the traumatic experiences of the Troubles. Through a discussion of selected works by these poets, this dissertation will develop a revision of established trauma theory and suggest a mode of reading works about trauma that emphasizes the generative potential of writing about trauma with non-normative narrative styles and poetic techniques.
Carson’s middle-era poetry transposes post-traumatic responses into poetry, using poetic form and atemporal narrative to draw the reader in. McGuckian’s deeply interior poems initially seem to resist interpretation, but ultimately, the reader as witness plays an important role in processing traumatic experiences. Muldoon’s playful and allusive poetry reflects on traumatic experiences without becoming stuck in any repeating narrative, emphasizing the generative potential for using poetry to transform the past into infinite imaginative possibilities. Colette Bryce and Leontia Flynn, writing in the “post-Agreement” era after the ceasefire, each seek distance and alternate perspectives that allow them to both look back at the past and look forward into the future. / English
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TEMPLE/oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/7682 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Anderson, Carla, 0000-0003-4541-076X |
| Contributors | O'Hara, Daniel T., 1948-, McCarthy, Pattie, Orvell, Miles, McKenna, Bernard, 1966-, Obert, Julia C. |
| Publisher | Temple University. Libraries |
| Source Sets | Temple University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 202 pages |
| Rights | IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/7654, Theses and Dissertations |
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