Self-Justification and Self-Obliteration in Seamus Heaney's Poems

• Main Authors: Chu Feng Lin, 朱鳳蓮
• Other Authors: Rahael Schulte
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2000
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/49748739427187692061

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 英國語文學系 === 88 === Self-justification moves to release subjectivity from the institutionalized community, and self-obliteration deconstructs the communal faith and struggles in conflicts of transgression and individual space. In the severe political conflicts, Heaney demonstrates that poetry is not the alternative expression between politics and art. For him, to write is to construct a new cultural frontier that resists political persecutions and justifies the released human relationships. Through crises of self-abnegation, the poet manifests his trust in aesthetics. In chapter one, I assert that from the interlocking silence and language, poetry resists social mechanisms and justifies that poetic identity confronts sectarian conflicts. Heaney critiques social mechanisms and poetic responses. His departure from Belfast reveals new confrontations with subjectivity and social oppressions. In chapter two, I argue that self-obliteration deconstructs concepts of solidarity and justifies aesthetic consciousness from disillusionment in transcendence. Heaney questions the suffocative concept of solidarity and tribal identification. The poet is confused and in despair. The last chapter I suggestthat aesthetic justification is socially bound, and through the frustrated desire to be free, Heaney justifies a sense of emptiness and harmony in personal space and human relationships. This thesis illustrates conflicts in subjectivity and analyses communal restraints. Through examining the institutionalized self, art is a source to construct personal space and release.