Striving For A New Cultural Horizon In Northern Ireland

History has proved that it's impossible for literature to keep silent in the context of the harsh exigencies of war. In this comparatively peaceful age, the particular sectarian war and ethnic conflict in Northern Ireland have provided rutilant inspirations and great passions to its poets, writers and singers. They have produced the most immortal works in today's Ireland. Under the influence of the realist country poet Patrick Kavanagh's (1904-1967) technique of finding philosophy in daily trifles, Seamus Heaney (1939- ) has showed great imagination toward the saving power of poetry. He was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for literature"for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past". This piece of news brought critics around the world to shift some of their attention to contemporary Northern Irish literature in effect, especially its poetry. Together with Heaney, Michael George Longley (1939- ), Derek Mahon (1941- ), and Paul Muldoon (1951- ) and other poets have all portrayed the complexity of modern Ireland in a series of topics ranging from history, politics to its culture. They are the pioneers of contemporary Northern Irish literature and the creators of the so-called Ulster Renaissance. With their influence and encouragement, other even younger poets became mature. It is their joint effort and dedication to writing that has produced the rich and splendid works of contemporary Northern Irish literature.Michael George Longley, the subject of this study, has just been awarded"The Ireland Chair of Poetry"in 2007. Comparing with other contemporaries, Longley is distinguished for his double identities as a poet and a cultural administrator, his British family background and the indifference he once received from the academy for a long time. With the purpose of studying the practical value of his poetic and cultural view toward Northern Ireland and other nations sharing similar sectarian disputes, this thesis is to put both his poetry and cultural undertakings into examination in the context of the contemporary Northern Irish Troubles.The thesis consists of six parts, including the Introduction, Conclusion and four chapters that make up the main body. The Introduction briefly states the motivation, subject, range and the research background of this study. What's more, the planned theories to be adopted in further discussion and the thesis structure are also included in this part. Chapter One discusses the origin of"the Troubles", the prosperity of poetry in modern Northern Ireland and Longley's gradual shift from a nature poet to a political poet with public concern. In Chapter Two, intertextuality is used as the main theoretical view to interpret the poet's cultural ideas in his intertextual poems which stand for Longley's highest achievement in his war poems. Longley's another important role as a cultural administrator is examined within the framework of multiculturalism in Chapter Three. Basing on the re-examination of the change and debate in the literary critical circle of Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to the end of the last century, Chapter Four analyzes the down and up of Longley's fame within the past 30 years to further unite the arguments in the previous three chapters together and finally confirms the far-sightedness of the poet. The thesis reaches a conclusion that by being either as a poet or a cultural administrator Longley has spared no effort in contributing to the Northern Irish cultural reconciliation process and religious inclusiveness. His poetic and cultural view is of practical humanistic care and may be used for reference by both Northern Ireland and other multi-religious nations facing the same cultural and religious problems and will certainly help to facilitate the cause of their cultural reconciliation process and the reconstruction of national culture.