The Poetics and Politics of Place and Space in Selected Works of Seamus Heaney.

Space has various meanings; while sometimes it can be expansive, at others it can be condensed into a particular frame. When power comes into question, space is internalized and subsequently challenged. The spaces of Seamus Heaney's writings are an extension of the wide expanse of the space of Ireland in general. The geographical spaces project fault lines distributed across religious, political and social grounds, and Heaney's poetry broadens this view of the Northern and Southern Ireland, trying to reestablish the lost Irish identity, entangled within the complexities of history and culture. Through the recollections of childhood, Heaney dwells on the rural landscape forming an essential part of nativity arising from the regionalism in question. This paper explores the relationship between the social and spatial aspects of Ireland as seen in Heaney's writing space. It is interpreted through Edward Soja's concept of Thirdspace that encompasses the socio-spatial and the spatial-temporal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]