Thinking Globally: Seamus Heaney and Dennis O'Driscoll

• Thesis title in Czech: Globální myšlení: Seamus Heaney a Dennis O'Driscoll
• Thesis title in English: Thinking Globally: Seamus Heaney and Dennis O'Driscoll
• Key words: Seamus Heaney, Dennis O'Driscoll, Moderní irská poezie
• English key words: Seamus Heaney, Dennis O'Driscoll, Modern Irish Poetry
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2014/2015
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: doc. Justin Quinn, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 20.11.2014
• Date of assignment: 20.11.2014
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 17.08.2016
• Date and time of defence: 12.09.2016 08:30
• Date of electronic submission: 17.08.2016
• Date of proceeded defence: 12.09.2016
• Submitted/finalized: committed by worker on behalf on and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. Daniela Theinová, Ph.D.

Guidelines

In his review of Dennis O’Driscoll’s collection of essays Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams (2001), David Wheatley mentions the author’s ability to “move between worlds”[1], pointing at the wide range of writers that are being assessed in the book. O’Driscoll’s genuine interest in poets from other countries and continents connects him with Seamus Heaney, who also looked abroad in his search for inspiration and was particularly influenced by Eastern European poetry. The aim of my thesis is to examine the relationship between O’Driscoll and Heaney by comparing their critical and also parts of their poetic work. In terms of their critical writing, my intention is to trace and explain various approaches that both Irish poets adopt in their effort to introduce foreign poets to the Anglophone audience. Apart from their essays and reviews, I am going to rely on Stepping Stones (2008), a book-long interview with Heaney by O’Driscoll, which constitutes another important link between both writers. In the second part of my thesis, I wish to determine in what ways the poetry of both O’Driscoll and Heaney corresponds with some of the attitudes expressed in their prose writing. O’Driscoll was described by Adam Kirsch as a poet who “brings welcome news of a demystified Ireland, a country that has undergone ‘globalization’ and come out looking very much like the rest of the First World.”[2] In order to demonstrate the global dimension of O’Driscoll’s poetry, I will look closely at his 50-part long sequence “The Bottom Line” (1994), which is enhanced not only by the poet’s flair for sarcasm but also by his highly accessible style of writing. My aim is to compare the poem with Heaney’s “Squarings” – a sequence of forty eight poems, each twelve lines long – which was published in Seeing Things (1991). While both sequences significantly differ in the subject matter, they resemble each other in terms of form, length and the period of publication. In Seeing Things, Heaney engages, among others, with the work and reputations of other artists[3] which will enable me to link the collection with his critical prose.

[1]David Wheatley, “‘None of us likes it’: On the Poet-Critic,” Contemporary Poetry Review, http://www.cprw.com/Wheatley/poetcritics.htm, 27 Sept 2014.
[2]Adam Kirsch, “I Sing Ireland Electric,” Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2003/04/i_sing_ireland_electric.html, 19 Sept 2014.
[3]Neil Corcoran, The Poetry of Seamus Heaney (London: Faber and Faber, 1998) 164.

References

Cavanagh, Michael. Professing Poetry. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009.
Corcoran, Neil. The Poetry of Seamus Heaney. London: Faber and Faber, 1998.
Curtis, Tony. The Art of Seamus Heaney. Dublin: Wolfhound, 1994.
Hart, Henry. Seamus Heaney: A Poet of Contrary Progressions. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1992.
Heaney, Seamus. Finders Keepers. London: Faber and Faber, 2002.
Heaney, Seamus. Opened Ground. London: Faber and Faber, 1998.
Heaney, Seamus. Seeing Things. London: Faber and Faber, 1991.
Heaney, Seamus. The Redress of Poetry. London: Faber and Faber, 1995.
Heaney, Seamus. The Spirit Level. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.
Kay, Magdalena. In Gratitude for All the Gifts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012.
Kirsch, Adam. “I Sing Ireland Electric.” Slate. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2003/04/i_sing_ireland_electric.html, 19 Sept. 2014.
Kirsch, Adam. “Poetry’s Office.” Metre 14 (2003): 32-38. http://metre.ff.cuni.cz/content/19. 27 Sept. 2014.
O’Donoghue, Bernard. The Cambridge Companion to Seamus Heaney. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
O’Driscoll, Dennis. Dear Life. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2012.
O’Driscoll, Dennis. New and Selected Poems. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2004.
O’Driscoll, Dennis. Stepping Stones. London: Faber and Faber, 2008.
O’Driscoll, Dennis. The Outnumbered Poet. Ed. by Peter Fallon. Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, 2013.
O’Driscoll, Dennis. Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams. Oldcastle: The Gallery Press, 2001.
Quinn, Justin. The Cambridge Companion to Modern Irish Poetry, 1800 – 2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Wheatley, David. “‘None of us likes it’: On the Poet-Critic.” Contemporary Poetry Review. http://www.cprw.com/Wheatley/poetcritics.htm. 27 Sept. 2014.