Expatriatism in the poetry of Paul Muldoon

Abstract

This thesis considers the use of the literary mode of expatriatism across eleven poetry collections by Paul Muldoon published between 1973 and 2010. Expatriatism is anaesthetic mode related to the physical condition of expatriation. Consequently, this thesis focuses upon the impact of Muldoon's emigration to the United States in 1987 on his subsequent poetry. Expatriatism as a critical concept has been described, notably by Terry Eagleton, but never previously systematically theorised. The introduction to this thesis provides a theoretical systematisation of expatriatism via a series of characteristic axioms of expatriatism, a consideration of critical engagements with expatriate writing, and the itemisation of significant literary expatriatists.

The body of this thesis is a sustained expatriatist reading of Muldoon's poetry. For this purpose, Muldoon's career is divided into three phases. The first phase consists of four collections—New Weather (1973), Mules (1977), Why Brownlee Left (1980), and Quoof (1983)—written while Muldoon was resident on the island of Ireland, and termed the Irish collections. The second phase marks Muldoon's transition from the protoexpatriatismof the Irish collections to an expatriatist mode in two collections: Meeting the British (1987) and Madoc: A Mystery (1990). The first two phases are considered in Part I of this thesis.

The third phase, considered in Part II, consists of five 'American' collections—The Annals of Chile (1994), Hay (1998), Moy Sand and Gravel (2002), Horse Latitudes(2006), and Maggot (2010)—characterised by Muldoon's sustained engagement with and development of the expatriatist mode. Muldoon's expatriatism is considered in relation to his political poetry, and to his domestic poetry. The development of both political and domestic poems allows Muldoon to develop an expatriatist means of addressing poems back to Ireland. The thesis concludes that Muldoon updates and expands the operational potential of writing in an expatriatist mode.

Date of Award	Jul 2015
Original language	English
Sponsors	Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland
Supervisor	Elmer Kennedy-Andrews (Supervisor) & Frank Sewell (Supervisor)