Postcolonial Overtures

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. Carson, for instance, casts