Öz
This paper explores the treatment of British national identity, topicality and tradition in the work of
Simon Armitage, alongside broader issues concerning contemporary public poetry in Britain. Armitage,
with Carol Ann Duffy, is a major candidate for the position of Poet Laureate in 2009. Both poets have
explored constructions of national identity in their work, but it is Armitage who has located himself more
assertively within the arena of public, national poetry. Despite his focus on modern life-styles and
discourses, and deployment of the mass media to disseminate his poetry into non-literary public spaces,
Armitage is particularly sensitive to literary and cultural tradition. Within his work, which is deliberately
accessible and contemporary, tradition is always at play in terms of allusion, response and interrogation. In
this sense, his poetry both occupies and challenges notions of canonicity and traditional conceptions of
British national identity. His recent focus on the theme of conflict also works to expose the inadequacy of
mainstream assertions of continuity and meaning when constructing national identity. Armitage places
Britishness and British literature within a broader ‘Millennial’ schema of eclipse, destruction and
regeneration. For Armitage the recurrence of the theme of conflict throughout literary history both connects
the literature of the present day with that of the past and emphasises the future’s instability and eternal lack
of resolution. Therefore, Armitage’s modern translations of canonical texts like the Odyssey and Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight foreground the fact that disharmony and conflict are, and have always been, national
preoccupations.
Anahtar Kelimeler
British national identity popularity public poetry tradition conflict Millennium contemporary
Ayrıntılar
| Birincil Dil | Türkçe |
|---|---|
| Bölüm | Makaleler |
| Yazarlar | |
| Yayımlanma Tarihi | 1 Nisan 2008 |
| Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2008 Cilt: 1 Sayı: 9 |