Northern Irish Poetry

Through discussion of the ways in which major Northern Irish poets (such as John Hewitt, Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Louis MacNeice and Derek Mahon) have been influenced by America, this study shows how Northern Irish poetry overspills national borders, complicating and enriching itself through cross-cultural interaction and hybridity.

Elmer Kennedy-Andrews is Professor of English at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. In addition to his many contributions to journals and edited volumes, he is the author of Writing Home: Poetry and Place in Northern Ireland (2008), (De-)constructing the North: Fiction and the Northern Ireland Troubles (2003), and editor of volumes of essays on Seamus Heaney, Ciaran Carson, Derek Mahon and Paul Muldoon.

Preface and Acknowledgements 1. Transnational Poetics 2. John Montague: 'circling to return' 3. Seamus Heaney: 'the appetites of gravity' 4. Derek Mahon: 'resident alien' 5. Paul Muldoon: Expatriate Transnationalism 6. Ciaran Carson: Indigenous Transnationalism 7. A Widening Circle Notes Bibliography Index