The Research of the Interrelationship between the History, Society and Culture of Northern Ireland and the Poetry of Seamus Heaney

2003-2005年这项研究的第一个目标是出版一本关于爱尔兰和北爱尔兰的书，全面介绍他们的历史、文化和社会。多亏了助学金，我可以在2005年，也就是我的项目任期的最后一年，通过出版我的书《爱尔兰：跨越边界》来发展我的研究并实现我的目标。在三年的时间里，我可以继续在北爱尔兰进行实地考察。我三次访问那里，在新教和天主教社区，特别是在贝尔法斯特和德里，通过检查壁画和涂鸦，强硬派联合主义者和民族主义者表达了他们的政治观点和社会态度，进行了实地考察。它极大地促进了我对谢默斯·希尼诗歌的研究。通过实地考察和对那里的一些人的采访，我可以在家里感受到北爱尔兰的冲突，这种感觉是我从未读过任何学术著作的。爱尔兰的每一次访问都给了我进一步研究的动力和动力，让我度过了田野调查、写作和阅读相互影响的三年。另一方面，我继续研究T·S·艾略特。这项研究似乎与我的研究《北爱尔兰历史、社会、文化与谢默斯·希尼诗歌的相互关系研究》没有什么直接关系，但对T·S·艾略特这样一位现代主义代表诗人的研究却与被称为最具代表性的爱尔兰现代诗人希尼的研究有很深的关系。事实上，希尼写了一篇关于艾略特的文章，题目是《向艾略特学习》，希尼在他的散文中经常提到艾略特。我相信，艾略特研究将为希尼研究提供一把新的钥匙。现在，我正准备在日本T.S.艾略特学会2006年年会上举办并主持“T.S.Eliot和Seamus Heaney”研讨会。

The first aim of the research 2003-2005 was to publish a book concerning Ireland and Northern Ireland which deals with their history, culture, society totally. Thanks to the Grant-in-Aid, I could develop my research and achieve the aim by publishing my book, Iho no Furusato ‘Ireland': Crossing the Border in 2005, the final year of my term of proiect.For three years I could continue my fieldwork in Northern Ireland. I visited there three times and made fieldwork in both Protestant and Catholic communities especially in Belfast and Derry by examining murals and graffiti which hard-line Unionists and Nationalists expressed their political opinions and social attitudes. It helped very much to promote my study of Seamus Heaney's poetry. Through the fieldwork and some interviews with the people there, I could feel the conflict in the Northern Ireland at home, which feelings I had never had through reading any academic writings. Each visit in Ireland gave me motivation and stimulus to my further research, so that I had happy three years when my fieldwork, writing and reading made mutual influence on each other.On the other hand I continued my research of T.S.Eliot. This research does not seem to have any direct relation with my research ; ‘The Research of Interrelationship between the History, Society and Culture of Northern Ireland and the Poetry of Seamus Heaney,' but the research of such a representative poet of Modernism as T.S.Eliot has deep relationship with the research of Heaney, so called the most representative Irish modern poet. In fact Heaney wrote an essay on Eliot titled ‘Learning from Eliot', and Heaney often alludes to Eliot in his prose. I believe that Eliot study will give a new key to Heaney study. Now I am preparing to hold and preside the symposium ‘T.S.Eliot and Seamus Heaney' at the annual conference 2006 of the Japan T.S.Eliot Society.