3/31 Discussion Questions

  1.  Does Heaney’s mention of the blackness of the body in “Punishment” motion towards his own experiences with black struggles in America, primarily in his time at Berkeley in “Views,” or is detail purely superficial?
  2. In regards to last week’s discussion of religion in Hurston’s writing, do Heaney’s works have similar subtext regarding religion, especially as an Irish Catholic who migrated from the North to the South?
  3.  How do the PSNI’s efforts to solve murders from the Troubles and heal the deep wounds of the conflict echo efforts in America to make amends for racial and ethnic discrimination through programs such as affirmative action and reparations?
  4. How do Irish citizens’ hesitations to either move on from the painful past or focus on past issues and solve them harken back to the tension of the Harlem Renaissance, in which creators tried to move past or reclaim former traumatic experience by means of their art?