Heaney's Elements: Mappings in the Works and Days

A guest seminar by Professor Rachel Falconer, University of Lausanne. Can Seamus Heaney’s poetry be understood as environmental, if not environmentalist?

An older man sitting in a chair with a book in his hand. Photo.

Seamus Heaney. Photo: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

About the seminar 

Can Seamus Heaney's exceptional immersion in his material and cultural environment increase our own awareness of our relation to the natural world?

To pursue this subject, we will explore a range of poems which engage in complex ways with the elements of earth, water, fire, air. And we’ll explore the possibility that a poetic life can be traced in this journey through elements which, from the ancient Greeks to this day, have helped define human nature.

Professor Falconer's most recent book is Seamus Heaney, Virgil and the Good of Poetry (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022).

This seminar forms part of the course ENG4427 Poetry in English.

All are warmly welcome!

Organizer

Juan Christian Pellicer, ENGLABS, ILOS
Published Sep. 27, 2023 10:30 AM - Last modified Sep. 27, 2023 10:31 AM