“The ground possessed and repossessed”: The Trope of the Feminized Land in Seamus Heaney’s North

• Thesis title in Czech: „Země znovu a znovu ovládána“: Trop zobrazení země jako ženy ve sbírce North od Seamuse Heaneyho
• Thesis title in English: “The ground possessed and repossessed”: The Trope of the Feminized Land in Seamus Heaney’s North
• Key words: Seamus Heaney|North|Feminismus|Trop zobrazení země jako ženy
• English key words: Seamus Heaney|North|Feminism|Trope of the feminized land
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2020/2021
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Radvan Markus, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 14.10.2020
• Date of assignment: 15.10.2020
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 20.10.2020
• Date and time of defence: 07.09.2021 11:30
• Date of electronic submission: 16.08.2021
• Date of proceeded defence: 07.09.2021
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. Daniela Theinová, Ph.D.

Guidelines

The depiction of land as feminine is the fundamental concept of the trope of the feminized land. The trope has its origin in the female image of sovereignty which entered the Irish literary tradition as early as in the medieval period and is tightly connected with the concept of sacral kingship. Since then, the female figure has been altered and adjusted, and appears in many forms – she is the old hag that transforms into a beautiful woman in the Uí Néill propaganda tract “Echtra mac nEchach Muigmedóin”, the vision in Aodhagán Ó Rathaille’s “Gile na Gile”, and the sorrowful mother lamenting being abandoned by her children in Patrick Pearse’s “Mise Éire”. What my thesis aims to show is that the trope of the feminized land can also be located in more recent Irish poetry. Firstly, I wish to delineate the historical development of the trope while paying attention to two opposite discourses – one treating the trope as a medium carrying a political message, and the other subverting the original meaning. The second part of my thesis will focus on Seamus Heaney’s poetry collection North (1975), which has received wide critical attention, be it for its binary structure or its engagement with the Troubles. My aim is to offer a close-reading of the poems in which the feminized trope can be spotted, which should also illuminate the relationship between Heaney’s poetry and the politics and history of Ireland. In the third part, the thesis will necessarily touch upon the feminist critique of Heaney’s poems, as the usage of the trope of the feminized land became a focus of many critics’ work, including Eavan Boland, Patricia Coughlan, or Edna Longley. The discussion of the feminist critique will be followed by an overview of the various ways in which the trope is reflected in works of selected contemporary Irish women poets. It is expected that my thesis will result in a coherent description of the trope’s historical development, its role in Irish literary and political discourse, and a contextual analysis of Seamus Heaney’s poems.

References

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