Aesthetic Subjectivation and Identity in Seamus Heaney’s “Station Island”

Abstract

Seamus Heaney’s “Station Island” occupies an important place in Heaney’s work as it is an allegory of self-creation and subjectivation. It introduces a subject whose attempts at discovering and creating the self and identity are challenged by the socio-political atmosphere of Northern Ireland. This study sheds a new light on the process of aesthetic subjectivation, tracing the development of the subject's personal and artistic abilities. Informed by different views about the art of self-creation, from philosophy, asceticism and art, including the ideas of Foucault and Deleuze, it traces the archaeology of personal and collective identities in this poem. The subject advances through a constant “curved” movement in order to unfold and reveal the fragments of his self. This movement is part of a strategy to circumvent social obstacles as he confronts a hostile space, the Other. Moreover, it positions him in various points of view, the sites that help him reveal the fragments of his self, once put together, constitute a complex mosaic representing a new and strong identity.