“My Palate Hung With Starlight” – A Gastrocritical Reading of Seamus Heaney’s Poetry

Abstract

Nobel-prize winning poet Seamus Heaney is celebrated for his rich verses recalling his home in the Northern Irish countryside of County Derry. Yet while the imaginative links to nature in his poetry have already been critically explored, little attention has been paid so far to his rendering of local food and foodways. From ploughing, digging potatoes and butter-churning to picking blackberries, Heaney sketches not only the everyday activities of mid-20th century rural Ireland, but also the social dynamics of community and identity and the socio-natural symbiosis embedded in those practices. Larger questions of love, life and death also infiltrate the scenes, as they might in life, through hints of sectarian divisions and memories of famine. This essay proposes a gastrocritical reading of Heaney’s poetry to study these topics in particularly meaningful ways. Gastrocriticism is a nascent critical approach to literature that applies the insights gained in Food Studies to literary writings, investigating the relationship of humans to each other and to nature as played out through the prism of food, or as Heaney wrote: “Things looming large and at the same time [...] pinned down in the smallest detail.”

Exploring the Food-Related Intangible Cultural Heritage of Bealtaine (May Day) within the Irish Folklore Commission’s Schools’ Collection Digital Archive

“…21 Anke Klitzing has recently applied a "gastrocritical" approach to the poetry of Seamus Heaney, concluding that the detailed and multi-layered depictions of agricultural and culinary scenes within his oeuvre are "fuelled by his deep familiarity with rural and culinary activities as well as his knowledge of Irish mythology, history and culture". 22 Food is a complex topic that is gradually establishing a foothold in Irish studies and expanding the collective understanding of Ireland's intangible cultural heritage and identity. Food is to be found in every aspect of the Irish imagination, from our mythology, placenames, stories, songs, poetry and folklore.…”

Kuliner, Tubuh, Dan Identitas: Sebuah Pembacaan Gastro-Semiotika Terhadap Sepilihan Puisi Karya Hanna Fransisca/Culinary, Body, and Identity: A Semiotic-Gastrocritical Reading to Hanna Fransisca’s Selected Poem

“…Dalam hal gastrocriticism, beberapa peneliti telah memublikasikan hasil penelitian dalam berbagai media, seperti dalam tulisan Klitzing (2019) otomatis berelasi dengan keserakahan: untuk makan, seseorang harus membunuh (Klitzing, 2019, hlm. 30--31).…”

An exploratory study of food traditions associated with Imbolg (St. Brigid’s Day) from The Irish Schools’ Folklore Collection

“…10 A food studies lens has also recently been applied to Irish literature, 11 most recently in the form of gastrocriticism. 12 This special volume of Folk Life highlights the interdisciplinary nature of food studies, with papers on the history of the recipe 13 ; food in poetry 14 ; cookbooks as historic sources 15 ; newspaper restaurant reviews; and indeed, food and folklore. This volume augments recent articles on historic diet and foodways, 16 French influences on Georgian Ireland, 17 and food representation in Women's Magazines.…”