Northern Irish Poets Go Undercover

By buniverse ()

Records of dark times are often incomplete. Official inquiries into what happened on Bloody Sunday, when members of the British Army shot 26 unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders in Northern Ireland, were finally made public in June of [...]2010—nearly 40 years after the incident.

In the meantime, Northern Irish poets have written their own versions. In certain instances, poems exist as the sole trace of politically unpalatable events. Michael Parker, a professor of English literature at the University of Central Lancashire in England, integrates published materials, archives, letters, and interviews to modify and contest the perspectives of published accounts, both literary and historical.

In his lecture “Seamus Heaney and Northern Ireland Literature: Taking Stock,” Parker discusses the continuing troubles in Northern Ireland and the response from Northern Irish writers.

Hosted by the College of General Studies on October 15, 2010.
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