현대 영국시: 영국, 혹은 영어의 안과 밖

Abstract

This article attempts to show the topography of the recent ‘British’ poetry since the 1980’s. Many anthologies and criticisms on the British poetry agree that the ‘British’ poetry has undergone a considerable transformation reflecting socio-cultural changes which took place in U.K. since the end of the Second World War and that it now contains many ‘non-British’ elements. To examine the characteristics of contemporary British poetry, this study adopts two seemingly disparate but similar perspectives of looking at UK and British poetry. The first perspective concerns the poets who work in both the inside and the outside of what was traditionally known as “U.K.” Contemporary poets such as Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Gillian Clarke, and Tony Harrison come from the areas once not regarded as the mainstream England. While conscious of their own cultural root and non-British identity, they either try to establish their new identity by rejecting their tradition and the English influence or by being gradually assimilated into the greater British tradition of literature. The second perspective is to see the changes occurring in English as the medium of poetry. As a string of new, powerful poets come from the marginal regions or former colonies, contemporary poetry accordingly begins to reflect their dialect replacing the ‘standard English.’ These changes in UK itself and English are closely interrelated with each other, securing variety for contemporary British poetry.