Vestnik Permskogo universiteta: Rossijskaâ i zarubežnaâ filologiâ (Oct 2017)
“A CONTOUR COLD AS PERMAFROST”: SIBERIA IN THE MYTHOPOETIC SYSTEM OF W. B. YEATS AND SEAMUS HEANEY
Abstract
The article focuses on the mythologised image of Siberia as an indispensable part of the personal poetic space of two great Irish poets – W. B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney. The phenomenon of Siberia as a myth and as a part of the Irish poets’ private mythology is one of the most intriguing and significant aspects which helps us get a deeper understanding of the dialogue between Irish and Russian literary traditions. However, this phenomenon has received very little attention so far. Thus, the article aims to analyse the transformation of Siberia as a real geographical place into “Siberia of the mind” and attempts to find out the meaning this part of Russia acquired in the poetic systems of the two different authors who lived in different times and belonged to different generations of Irish poets. The article studies literary works that served as a source of knowledge about Siberia for Yeats and Heaney. Thus, Yeats’s literary knowledge of Siberia comes mainly from J. C. Mangan’s poem of the same name and the book by B. D. Howard Life with Trans-Siberian Savages which Yeats owned, where the author describes his journey to the Siberian exile camps. Seamus Heaney became more familiar with Siberia through Anton Chekhov’s account of his journey to the Island of Sakhalin, which greatly impressed the poet. From the Irish point of view, Siberia is often seen as a land of exile and misery. However, this desolate territory appears to be an important destination for W. B. Yeats and especially Seamus Heaney. The article argues that for both of these poets Siberia became a metaphor and, to use Ronald Schuchard’s idea, an element of their own private mythology, to which the poets referred when defining or questioning the role of a poet and in their search for poetic truth.
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