Questing For The Opened Ground Of Identity:the Spatial Construction Of Identity In Seamus Heaney’s Poems

The issue of identity as a complicated focus in cultural study has aroused critics’ interest in space research. In view of the openness and creativeness of space, identity thus breaks the bonds of essentialism and shows its alterability and diversity in literary studies. This fresh understanding in turn can be utilized in the study of Seamus Heaney" s poetry. Through close reading of poetry texts and theoretical research, this study finds that, in most current research on Heaney, there is no thematic study of identity from the angle of space, although the importance of place as a concern has been recognized fairly by Heaney’s scholarship. Therefore, the present study is to clarify Heaney’s exploration of identity in different spaces as it transforms through the whole writing period, and to show that the distinguishing features of identity is largely determined by ideas of space. Edward Soja’s post modern perspective of "Thirdspace" and Mike Crang’s study on landscape, place and space can help explain Heaney’s dealing with the questing of identity between Northern Ireland and England, the vacillation of identity in politic space and the location of identity in international milieu. According to Soja’s "Thirdspace" perspective, the issue of identity is not a fixed nature for social beings or communities, it always in the current of transformation rather than keeps immutable off specific history, geography and culture. And in view of Crang’s spatial criticism, with the interactions of different kinds of cultural forces and historical events, the spatial forms like landscape, place and space have already been endowed with the ability to construct muti-cultural connotations. As for the poems of Seamus Heaney, it is the combined standpoints from which the spatial construction of identity can be explored:Heaney’s indefatigable questing for identity in rural life, cultural landscapes, historical and real spaces, imaginative voyage and psychological world, revealed the unfixed nature of identity.The main body of the present study is divided into the following three parts:The first chapter deals with Heaney’s thorough inquiry about identity in his early poems. It points out first that the landscape and geographical layout of his home town County Derry bear all senses of identity in bifurcated state. Then, it proceeds, the rural laboring scenes becomes the ground for Heaney to root his sense of identity in community’s common experience, which ascertains him the placement of identity in rural space. Meanwhile, He is encouraged to transcend the single connection between identity and rural space. And language space is chosen as the questing field then. The success of breaking the center and periphery relation between English and Irish creates a poetic internal space for identity. Thus, Heaney’s identity is clarified by his strategy of exhibiting explicit space in rural life and implicit space in language cultures, and his endeavor in transcending the binary oppositions in regions and languages as well conveys his "opened" attitude toward the issue of identity.The second chapter probes into Heaney’s ambivalence and dilemma in questing for identity in politic space. Heaney’s predicament of defining himself is symbolized by the juxtaposition of historical and real landscapes unearthed from the "bogland", by his choice of exile and return, and by his meditation in the visionary pilgrimage in "Station Island". Firstly, the "bogland" symbolizes the political tensions rose in Northern Ireland and it also implies the troubled stage of Heaney in choosing his stance between political circumstances and poetic delight. Secondly, Heaney compares Belfast to the barren ground for art, while the rustic place of Glanmore—the space with power of growth and fertility, represents the ideal place for the poet to renew his creation, then Dublin—a more social space for the coexistence of different cultures and identities, is the space of keeping "otherness" of identity. Thirdly, in the visional space of "Station Island", Heaney undergoes an identity pilgrimage. The debates and dialogues in this dreamworld space ascertain him of what should be abandoned and what should be sustained in his life. Finally Heaney has extricated himself from the ambivalence and dilemma of identity.The third chapter expounds Heaney’s intention of creating harmonic space for the location of his identity. The spatial recurrence of past events and scenes provides Heaney with an access to conceive his integrated views of life, world, nature and art. The visional spatial movement between nether world and this world removes the poet’s afraid of death as well as strengthens him to live purposefully for the continuation of his poetic life. The contrast and juxtaposition of violent scenes around the world and serene life in poetic space embody Heaney’s endeavor in constructing an ideal balance in the modern world. The poet’s immersion in the natural world:the depiction of nature and rural life reflects Heaney’s specific position out of the intricate modern life. Ultimately, it is concluded that by the creation of harmonic space between the real world and the imaginative world. Heaney confirms his location of identity in the world of poetry.The conclusion elucidates the dynamic and complex nature of identity as a whole, which is illustrated by the bifurcation of identities between Northern Ireland and England, the vacillation of identity in political space and the location of identity in the integrated harmonic space of life, nature, world and art. In fact, Heaney’s questing for identity in different spaces is in consistency, because he always explores the "opened" ground for identity:leave room for alterability and diversity in the discussion of the issue of identity. In this sense, Heaney plants the seeds of post modernism into the earth of modern poetry.