Poetic Reception of the Trojan War in the Works of Seamus Heaney

Abstract

Works of the Ireland writer Seamus Heaney are characterized by an intertextual appeal to the Ancient Greek and Latin literature
where the peculiar place belongs to the Trojan War reception. Trojan War’s motive, to different degrees of authenticity to the original text, is introduced in the Heaney’s translation and adaptation of Sophocles tragedy «Philoctetes», published under the
title «The Cure at Troy» and in the poetic cycle «Mycenae Lookout».

The main goal of the given paper is to investigate the theme of the Trojan War and its interpretation in the S. Heaney’s works. To analyze the appropriate parallels and reflections in coincidence with the Ukrainian urgent problems and the world issues in general. Article’s methodological framework is based on the principles of Comparative Literature, additionally involving translation studies and Intertextology methods, applying comparative-historical, contextual and textual analysis.

Results. Heaney’s drama «The Cure at Troy» reflects the author’s position that withstands lie, evil, manipulation, fraud and instead stands on the side of hope and victory of justice.

In the poetry cycle «Mycenae Lookout» S. Heaney casts the light on the questions that are of great importance today. He places emphasize on the dark sides of the aggressor’s psyche in time of war that are expressed by the desire of killing, plundering and raping. The author draws a conclusion about the shared responsibility for the crime and terror, because in the war’s launching and its continuation, are always guilty even those who stand aside and is a passive lookout of the violence committed. S. Heaney hopes that humankind is able to resist the tragic pattern of the history, extremism and totalitarianism and asserts the unconquerability of human spirit in the face of death and destruction. Scientific novelty: for the first time in Ukrainian literary studies, the theme of the Trojan War was analyzed in the works of S. Heaney "Healing in Troy" and "The Watchman near Mycenae" and the projection on current events in Ukraine was shown.

In the findings is stated that Heaney’s works are a kind of recontextualization of the classical (ancient) proto-text where the global humans’ issues, raised originally in Mythology and ancient literary works devoted to the Trojan War, have acquired new and topical meaning in the contemporary history.