Hope & history rhyme: Heaney and History- Prof JJ Lee

From the standpoint of his vast experience and scholarship as a historian, Professor Joe Lee took a long lens approach to the work of Seamus Heaney at last night's lecture in the Seamus Heaney Lecture Series, locating it at times not just in Ireland’s history, and Anglo-Irish relations, but in the context of the Irish diaspora in the US. In a highly engaging lecture, Professor Lee drew attention to the value of exploring—as Heaney does—the resonance between Irish history and the struggles of occupation, culture and identity elsewhere, especially in many Eastern European countries.

Noting the colossal public and literary world to which Heaney has given of himself, and his capacity as a highly intelligent observer of any number of topics, Lee commented on the importance of Heaney’s contribution to prose as well as to poetry. He noted in particular Heaney’s sense of place, and the attention to place in the poetry of Kavanagh and Heaney. Yet, Lee argued, Heaney’s poetry has extended the Irish sense of place and identity, especially as a poet of the English speaking world. The status of Heaney’s work in the American literary scene, and the huge regard in which he is held in the US firmament, has enabled Heaney to liberate himself from the mindset of the London scene and to allow his work to be considered from a wider literary perspective. However, Lee also remarked on the relative neglect of the Irish diaspora in Irish American poetry writing and called for greater exploration of this through poetry.

Finally, Professor Lee drew attention to the creative tension between the poet and historian, and to what poets can learn from historians and vice versa. He described poetry as an imaginative activity that the historian must distrust. Yet, while the historian must take an impartial view of events, the poet can enlighten a situation in a lightning flash and with searing insight. The historian therefore must use the poet to illuminate and locate his view and place it in perspective with what he sees.

Bringing a deep knowledge and appreciation of Professor Joe Lee’s work, the event was skilfully chaired by another outstanding historian, Professor Marian Lyons, Head of the history department at NUI Maynooth.

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The next lecture in the series will be next Monday 7 March entitled The Physical World of Seamus Heaney and will be delivered by Harry Clifton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: Thursday March 03 2011