『순례의 섬』에 나타난 죄의식과 예술가로의 비상

Abstract

Station Island is a culmination of inner emigration expressed in “Exposure” of North. The difference between North and Station Island in the respect of the spiritual wandering lies in the fact that the purpose of wandering in North is to escape from Ulster violence while that in Station Island is to flee from Catholic bondage. Identifying himself with Sweeney, an Irish symbol of the wandering artist, the writer pursues the pilgrimage for becoming the world writer, not confining his talent to the local vision. In this sense, Station Island seems to belong to the same category as James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man. Although the voluminous poetry in question seems to lack in consistency, the writer seems to show us a constant idea, that is, the dream for flight as a free artist through Sweeney, the symbol of a free artist. This work consists of three sections: the first section dealing with sense of sin, the second with pilgrimage for curing some sense of sin, and the third with flight as an artist free from some bondage and searching for the new-style poems. This poetry looks similar in structure to Dante’s Divine Comedy: during pilgrimage the writer encounters 12 ghosts who have influenced the writer’s life. This pilgrimage includes a kind of the poet’s survey on the Irish Republic spirit as well as the pilgrimage about Irish history of politics. Through this pilgrimage, the poet comes to ensure his position as a free artist. Although he makes sure that he is a free artist, he feels his poetic materials are drying up. In brief, Station Island is another poetry where the poet confesses that he becomes an artist free from bondage, which means that Heaney also follows the Irish artistic tradition inheriting from Sweeney, the historical person who abandoned his throne as king and wandered searching for the artistic freedom.