From Inside To Outside:Geographical Writing In Wintering Out Of Seamus Heaney

The third anthology of Seamus Heaney,Wintering Out,was published in the 1970 s when religious contradictions and violent conflicts of Northern Ireland broke out.It builds a metaphorical system containing place-names,topographical features,natural landscapes and cultural landscapes from the local perspective;and writes and studies the historical clashes between England and Ireland.The anthology Wintering Out is based on the poet's individual experience and the starting point of life,which contains the first geographical form,that is,the birthplace and home.His imagination of the two makes him feel the inner happiness,thus highlighting the family love;however,the tendency of the internal contraction of the two makes him speechless,which also indicates the closed pain.At the same time,the birthplace and home,as the enlightened places of his poetry,have inspired the thinking of the poet on the tension between art and reality.Wintering Out writes from the inside to the outside,from the individual to the groups,and describes the second geographical space-the land of Ireland.Heaney describes the relationship between the dweller and the land from the two aspects,that is,land naming and land reform.The former is embodied in the poems which are focused on place names,which can be represented by the signifier and signified of language symbols.However,the latter is reflected in the depiction of the labor scenes,which can be conveyed through gestures and posture of the laborer.Both of them show that the relationship between man and land is influenced by many factors,such as culture,economy,especially the political factors of imperial colonization.Wintering Out writes the old Irish history from the current place,describes the third geographical landscape,that is,the place in that time.Through the phenomenon that the original geographic name is obscured,he investigates the traces of imperial colonization,so as to show the current situation of the estrangement between England and Ireland.He also establishes the relationship between ancient and modern and explores the long history of the cycle of life,death and violence by swamp image.Through the cultural archeology of the place,he tries to find a symbol of the Irish spirit,and build a spiritual lighthouse for Irish people struggling in the political whirlpool.The geographical description in this anthology shows the writer's footsteps of searching,that is from the inside to the outside,from individual to collective emotional return,from the present to the history.From the inside to the outside,Heaney's step is always from the Irish countryside,and with gradually progressive,trying to transcend identity dilemma and racial barriers in a broader perspective,in order to achieve the tension and balance among a variety of cultural identities.