“The Worker Who Reads: Hermeneutics of Class in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney and His British and European Contemporaries”

This lecture will look at the links between politics, family background, and social class in the poetry of Seamus Heaney and his British contemporaries, including a look at contemporary poetry in various European languages. This is a free hybrid event by Dr. Attila Dosa, presented in partnership with the University of St. Thomas. Dr. Dosa is an Erasmus Scholar working in the Center for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas.

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Seamus Heaney is the foremost Irish poet since W. B. Yeats. Attila Dosa will attempt to address the aspects of class, education and family loyalty in Heaney’s work in the context of his contemporaries in the British Isles and consider the influence of European poetry with particular reference to poets from Poland. The talk will consider how the political dimensions in Heaney’s work mesh with ideas of ordinariness in relation to family and place of residence, and how these notions informed his attitude to poetry. The lecture will discuss how his Irish roots in a family of field workers affected Seamus Heaney and will draw parallels with his fellow poets from other regions of the British Isles. One of Heaney’s poet friends to be discussed is Tony Harrison from Newcastle in the north of England, who, like Heaney, has been intensely concerned with his working-class origins. The other is Douglas Dunn from the west of Scotland, who has also risen through education and culture without for a moment abandoning the work ethic he learned at home. The work of earlier generations, of parents and grandparents, as something to be followed or lived up to is a theme that all these poets revisit again and again. Moreover, Seamus Heaney was one of the extraordinarily cultured poets with an extensive knowledge of, and a deeply felt commitment to, the literatures of various nations, from the United States to Poland. The Irish and the Poles (and the Hungarians, for that matter) have shared a sense of exile, emigration and political oppression as a central experience of their identity. In his discussion of a selection of poems by Seamus Heaney, Attila Dosa will point to the sense of responsibility that Heaney shared with his Polish contemporaries and that shaped his exemplary loyalty to country, class and family ties. The poets discussed all share a devotion to the sweet yoke of poetry, but they pay their respects not only to the Muse, but also to their parents and heritage with the best eloquence they have.

Attila Dosa is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Miskolc, Northern Hungary. He was a Chevening Scholar at the University of Oxford and received his Ph.D. from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His area of research is Scottish literature, with a particular focus on contemporary poetry, the subject of his book Beyond Identity: New Horizons in Modern Scottish Poetry. He also enjoys sharing with students the pleasure of reading contemporary Irish poetry, particularly by Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon. His monograph on the poetry of Douglas Dunn is forthcoming in Glasgow.