In the Limbo of Languages: Linguistic Change in Seamus Heaney

Mumin Hakkıoglu ()
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Mumin Hakkıoglu: Gumushane University

Anadolu University Journal of Social Sciences, 2013, vol. 13, issue 1, 161-1170

Abstract: The language issue ensuing from English colonialism in Ireland has had a wide treatment in the poetry of Seamus Heaney, a distinguished representative of contemporary poetry. Discussing for the great erosion in Irish language, the poet has underlined the historical reasons and emphasised the results of language loss. It is seen that Heaney, who is indebted in his artistic achievement to the pioneers of English literature, vacillates between the language used by his literary ancestors and that of his biological ones. However, he eliminates this dichotomy by asserting that the English spoken in Ireland has some distinctive features from the English spoken in London. His acceptance of the absolute supremacy of artistic language is the product of the last stage he has reached in tandem with gaining universality. From this point of view, English is no longer the tongue of the colonizer as it appears in his early poems, but a sublime language open to change, enriched by the opportunities offered by various languages and improved through his poetic contributions.

Keywords: Seamus Heaney; Poetry; Language Loss; Polylingualism; Irish Language; Ireland. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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