Oceanic Connections: The Sea in Irish and Caribbean Poetry

Author:   Ellen Howley
Publisher:   Syracuse University Press
ISBN:  

9780815611875


Pages:   277
Publication Date:   30 September 2025
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

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Oceanic Connections: The Sea in Irish and Caribbean Poetry


Overview

Oceanic Connections is a first-of-its-kind comparative study of Anglophone Irish and Caribbean poets who write widely about the sea, revealing the similarities across the poetic traditions of both regions. In turning to the sea, Ellen Howley applies a Blue Humanities lens to the work of major poets from Ireland and the Anglophone Caribbean, such as Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite, Seamus Heaney, and Medbh McGuckian. She demonstrates how the sea is more than a backdrop or metaphor—it is a generative space of creative and historical meaning. Through careful analysis, Howley shows how poets from these geographically distant but culturally resonant regions engage with the ocean’s material realities and mythic depths. Howley navigates between concrete maritime experiences—sailors, shipwrecks, coastal labor—and the sea’s profound metaphorical potential. Poets become cartographers of both physical and imaginative spaces, mapping connections that span continents and centuries. Oceanic Connections reveals how the ocean simultaneously represents historical trauma, cultural memory, and a site of transformative artistic expression. Building on studies of Irish-Caribbean connections by Michael Malouf, Lee M. Jenkins, Stephanie Pocock Boeninger, Allison Donnell, Maria McGarrity, and Evelyn O’Callaghan, this study furthers the comparative conversation through its emphasis on poetic resemblances, illuminating surprising commonalities while honoring each tradition’s unique voice.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ellen Howley
Publisher:   Syracuse University Press
Imprint:   Syracuse University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
ISBN:  

9780815611875


ISBN 10:   0815611870
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   30 September 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Reviews

""A serious and inspired analysis of poetry from Ireland and the Caribbean. Howley is an excellent reader of poetry and capable of situating her project within the field."" - Michael Malouf, author of Making World English: Literature, Late Empire, and English Language Teaching, 1919–39 ""Deftly taking bearings from the Blue Humanities and transatlantic poetics, and with exemplary fluidity, Howley tacks between the work of Heaney and Walcott, Boland and Brathwaite, and offers new and brilliant readings to show how the poets of these Atlantic archipelagos have been intimately shaped by the sea’s music."" - John Brannigan, University College Dublin ""An excellent and original book....Ethical, interdisciplinary and continuously creative, Howley’s book is a guide to literature and the sea."" - Nicholas Allen, director, Wilson Center for Humanities and Arts


Author Information

Ellen Howley is assistant professor at the School of English at Dublin City University. She is the co-editor of Seamus Heaney’s Mythmaking.

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