Conclusion

Amy E. Varela

pp. 202-207

in: Stéphanie Schwerter, Northern Irish poetry and the Russian turn, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

Through the choice of their various source texts, Heaney, Paulin and McGuckian introduce a Russian dimension into their poems and set out to create an alienating view of the Northern Irish situation. Moving away from an "insular" vision of the conflict, they place the region into an international context with the intention of giving rise to alternative perceptions of local tensions. The three poets employ Shklovsky's technique of defamilarisation in order to "deautomatise" and thus undermine traditional interpretations of the Troubles. They create correlations between Northern Ireland and Russia aiming at achieving a geographical and mental detachment. Furthermore, Heaney, Paulin and McGuckian oppose Northern Irish images with allusions to Soviet Russia and in this way "dialogize"¹ different voices and belief systems. Through the use of an underlying Russian framework, they give rise to multiple readings of their poems, working against a single authoritarian interpretation of political violence in the North.