Bog Queens The Representation of Women in the
‘Bog Queens’: The Representation of Women in the Poetry of John Montague and Seamus Heaney By Patricia Coughlan, in Theorizing Ireland, ed. Clare Connolly. pgs. 41 -60 NY: Palgrove, 2003
‘Bog Queens’ n Painstakingly discussed, reviewed, summarized, & satirized by Christopher C. Douglas. n For Dr. Moloney’s Irish Literature Course, 2005.
Favorite Word/Phrase n Spade-phallus n Phallically n Phallic surrogates
Two Types of Female-Figures n Beloved or Spouse Figure vs. The Mother n Which can, in turn be: q “Benign and fertile” or q n “Awe-inspiring and Terrible” Women are, however, defined by ‘the home. ’
Heaney’s Two Types of Women n The Passive Woman who is brought pleasure and is explored by a Dominate Male. q n “Rite of Spring, ” “Bog Queen, ” “Ocean’s Love to Ireland, ” & others. A Woman who “dooms, destroys, puzzles and encompasses the man, but also assists him to self-discovery. ” The Mother merged with the Spouse. q “The Tollund Man” & “The Grauballe Man”
On “Digging” n "Digging foreshadows later, explicitly sexual, bog poems, with its all too relevant succession of phallic surrogates -- pen, 'snug as a gun, ' spade -- and its sensuously rich material which waits passively to be 'dug'. ” q This is a case of ‘gender roles’ where Heaney is aligning himself with his forefathers and their phallocentric professions. n (I got that word from Lit. Crit. with Dr. Conley)
My thoughts on “Digging” q Clearly, brimming with Sexuality.
Gender in Celtic Culture n Gender is a “metaphysical concept, ” two opposing forces – male/female, much like black/white, north/south. n This is different from the World of Today, where gender is tied up on a more individual level, apparently.
Sex! Passive sex! n The poems “Rite of Spring” and “Undine” both deal with sexual desires, women, and water. n The woman/water is ‘tamed’ by ‘farming skill. ’ It’s sort of a ‘women are like nature, men are like civilization’ sort of thing.
On “Midnight” n n Language is “erotically enabling. ” “In "Midnight, " the eradication of wolves in Ireland is made the sign of both of the seventeenth-century conquest and of emasculation. The poem ends: Nothing is panting, lolling, Vapouring. The tongue's Leashed in my throat. making a symptomatic equation of phallus, speech, predation, and national strength almost too obvious to mention. ”
My thoughts on “Midnight” n Clearly, very erotically enabling / brimming with sexuality.
The Second Type of Woman n “In Heaney, for example, the nature-goddess is simultaneously spouse, death-bringer and nurturer. ”
On “The Tollund Man” n n n She tightened her torc on him And opened her fen, Those dark juices working Him to a saint’s kept body. “Female energy” is both “inert and devouring. ” The woman is “a channel for masculine fear and desire. ” The land is feminine, and associated with death. It, like women, is oppressed.
The Bog & “Ocean’s Love” n In “Ocean’s Love to Ireland, ” the English takeover is seen as a sort of ‘rape’ or seduction of the land. n The death-land goddess claiming helpless victims (female force) is countered with the English colonization ‘rape’ (masculine force) in different poems.
The Author’s Final Thoughts n “So, must we not conclude that the poetry of Montague and Heaney as a whole is insistently and damagingly gendered? ” n The poetry reinforces gender stereotypes, and refuses to acknowledge “an autonomous subjectivity in others: a structure common to sexism and racism. ”
My Final Thoughts n “So, must we not conclude that the poetry of Montague and Heaney as a whole is insistently and damagingly gendered? ” q n n I answer “No” to your rhetorical question. The author seemed predisposed to seeing penises in everything, especially shovels. I don’t think that a poem about digging potatoes has anything to do with sex. One of us is wrong. I think I know who I agree with. Maybe people would enjoy poetry more if they didn’t go looking for hidden agendas. I wonder if Patricia Coughlan enjoyed the poems.
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