ABSTRACT

In this paper we discuss the entangled relationship between literary creation, archaeology and representations of gender in the poetry of Seamus Heaney, in particular the ‘bog poems’ The Tollund Man and Bogland. We trace the early formative connections between the poet, peatlands and ‘bog body’ research, in which both literary critical and archaeological scholars have analysed themes including ‘the bog as archive’, theory and practice of archaeology and the process of poetic creation and imagining in Heaney’s writings. We discuss archaeological perspectives on Heaney’s poetry, and outline literary critique that has problematised the representation of gender in the ‘bog poems’. Finally, we consider the poem Bogland and read this through the lens of Irish peatland archaeology, in particular its destruction by industrial peat extraction. To conclude, we reflect how Heaney’s poetry as a form of archaeological knowledge and narratives must continue to be subject to ‘excavation’, contextual readings and critique.

摘要

在本文中，我们讨论了西默斯·希尼的诗歌中的文学创作，考古学和性别表征之间的纠缠关系，特别是“沼泽诗”托伦德·曼和博格兰德。我们追溯了诗人，泥炭地和“沼泽体”研究之间的早期形成联系，其中文学批评和考古学者都分析了主题，包括“沼泽作为档案”，考古学的理论和实践以及诗歌创作和想象的过程在Heaney的著作中。我们讨论了希尼诗歌的考古学观点，并概述了对“沼泽诗歌”中的性别表现形式提出质疑的文学批评。最后，我们考虑这首诗《博格兰》，并从爱尔兰泥炭地考古学的角度，特别是由于工业泥炭提取对它的破坏，来阅读这本书。总而言之，我们反映了希尼诗歌作为一种考古知识和叙事形式必须如何继续受到“发掘”，语境性阅读和批评的影响。