Irish Studies and Seamus Heaney Centre Event: Nicholas Allen (2/3/26)

Описание: Late Heaney: Nicholas Allen in conversation with Mark Carruthers

Late Heaney follows Seamus Heaney through the landscapes, friendships and events that shaped his last four collections, The Spirit Level, Electric Light, District and Circle, and Human Chain, set in conversation with his work at large. His later life was a time of transformative change and achievement, following the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. This book grounds that experience in the history and geography of the places he wrote about, with an eye to the artists who influenced him and the people he knew. Late Heaney draws a line from the waterlands of Lough Neagh to the olive groves of Greece, inviting the reader to think about time and belonging in context of art and memory. Later, Heaney began to imagine himself as a witness at the riverbank between life and death, an image that features powerfully in his final poems. Late Heaney follows the poet there, finding light in the dark, and company among the shades.

Nicholas Allen is the Baldwin Professor in Humanities and Director of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia. He writes widely about Irish literature and has received many grants and awards for his work. Mark Carruthers is one of Northern Ireland’s most respected broadcasters. He joined BBC Northern Ireland in 1989 and presents a string of well-established political programmes on television and radio, including the The View, Sunday Politics and Red Lines. He has been nominated for four Royal Television Society awards for his work.

NB: due to an IT problem, around 7 minutes of this event was not recorded.