Postcolonial Overtures

Explores the importance of sound in contemporary Northern Irish writing, focusing on the work of three canonical poets: Ciaran Carson, Derek Mahon, and Paul Muldoon. Obert argues that these poets respond to what Edward Said calls "geographical violence” - to the stratification of the North's visual spaces; to the sectarian symbols splashed across Belfast and beyond - by turning from the eye to the ear, tentatively remapping place in acoustic space.