Seamus Heaney and Society

Abstract Seamus Heaney and Society presents a comprehensive and dynamic new engagement with the work of one of the most celebrated poets of the modern period. In approaching Heaney’s poetry it also recognizes the value of the other roles he took on in the course of his career, notably in education, journalism, and broadcasting, appreciating how his work as a poet was shaped by his work as a teacher, lecturer, critic, and public figure. Mindful of the various spheres of his career it assesses his achievements and status in Ireland, Britain, and the United States. Drawing on a range of archival material, it seeks to revive the network of associations in which Heaney’s work was written, published, and circulated—including newspapers and magazines in London, radio and television programmes in Northern Ireland, and manuscript drafts of key writings now held in the National Library of Ireland. Through asserting the significance of the cultural, institutional, and historical circumstances of Heaney’s writing life, it offers a re-examination of the writer in public, the social lives of the work of art, and the questions of obligation and responsibility which Heaney confronted throughout his career. Throughout, though, its primary concern is with the nature and singularity of poetry, and the ways in which these qualities are asserted, challenged, and sustained in Heaney’s work.