Oral Presentations - Session 1C: UC 330
THE IRISH BEOWULF
Presentation Type
Presentation
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Kathleen Kane
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Irish Studies
Abstract / Artist's Statement
This project closely examines Seamus Heaney’s translation of the Anglo Saxon epic, “Beowulf.” Its purpose is not to understand the poem in its pre-modern context, but to know it as a work of psychological, culturally interpretive “post” art. It aims to understand Heaney’s Beowulf as its own form of production independent of the medieval original via close analysis of influence in the realm of politic, culture, and linguistics, proposing answers to such rhetorical questions as “How does the Beowulf poem speak to its Irish producer/interpreter,” and “To what extent has the Irish condition influenced Heaney in his interpretive translation of Beowulf?” By nature, the project explores the modern history and direction of Irish literature, extrapolating the cultural history that produced it, and veers toward understanding a tension-laced culture. Therefore, the conclusion of this project offers an in-depth way of understanding how the Irish speaks to the Beowulf poem, and how the Beowulf poem speaks to the Irish.
Category
Humanities
THE IRISH BEOWULF
UC 330
This project closely examines Seamus Heaney’s translation of the Anglo Saxon epic, “Beowulf.” Its purpose is not to understand the poem in its pre-modern context, but to know it as a work of psychological, culturally interpretive “post” art. It aims to understand Heaney’s Beowulf as its own form of production independent of the medieval original via close analysis of influence in the realm of politic, culture, and linguistics, proposing answers to such rhetorical questions as “How does the Beowulf poem speak to its Irish producer/interpreter,” and “To what extent has the Irish condition influenced Heaney in his interpretive translation of Beowulf?” By nature, the project explores the modern history and direction of Irish literature, extrapolating the cultural history that produced it, and veers toward understanding a tension-laced culture. Therefore, the conclusion of this project offers an in-depth way of understanding how the Irish speaks to the Beowulf poem, and how the Beowulf poem speaks to the Irish.