English 1022E Lecture 14: Heaney; Punishment
9 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
People dead almost 2000 years ago, bodies discovered preserved in the bogs in. Heaney was heavily affected by this, provoked to think about his own relationship to history. The crypt is the space that is hidden. Heaney always fascinated by bogs and the bog-men. The bog as a space of memory of history. A place unconscious of the landscape and of the people; hidden away and repressed. But, as with all things, they returned. In the archive they are held to public view. Space where a memory is there for all to see. The archive is not only there to preserve the past, it is there in response to the future. Confesses to what is essentially a crime. Putting the guilt in a poem; an archival space which will be there forever. It takes much courage to show guilt publicly. Heaney does not wish for us to forget his crime.
