Now’, ‘now’, ‘even now’
Temporal deixis and the crisis of the present in some Northern Irish poems of the Troubles
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12303742 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David Kennedy (0000-0001-8969-5395, University of Hull, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-16 |
| Publication date | 2010-02-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Irish Studies Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0967-0882 • E-ISSN: 1469-9303 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09670880903533391 |
| OpenAlex | W2050451061 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
The problem of how to describe and account for the present can be identified as a particular preoccupation of poets of the so-called Northern Irish renaissance. This article examines how the temporal deictic ‘now’ functions in some well-known poems by Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley and Derek Mahon. All three poets explore how to combine the plausibility of lyric derived from an individual consciousness with the authority of narrative derived from social interactions. This article will do three related things. First, it will argue that discussing ‘now’ as a temporal deictic enables us to appreciate the full ambiguity and complexity of some poems written at the height of the Northern Irish Troubles. Second, the article will argue that these poems reveal that ‘now’ actually functions in poetry more complexly than some theorists of deixis have allowed. Finally, the article will suggest newly fruitful ways of combining literary stylistics with more conventional close reading
Ambiguity · Art · Consciousness · Deixis · Epistemology · Irish · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Poetry · Sociology · History · Irish and British Studies · Joseph Conrad and Literature · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy
| Highly cited | No |
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