This research paper examines Seamus Heaney’s bog poems through the lenses of cultural memory, scapegoat theory, and collective trauma to contend that the bog body as a figure is a metaphor for national anxiety and ancestral pride—and an invitation to reconsider Ireland’s relationship to its violent past. Whereas Heaney’s fascination with Iron Age settlements has typically been understood as violence and political sacrifice, this paper redoes such imagery through recent thought on affect, eco-trauma, and national identity. The analysis proceeds by first situating the poems within Girardian scapegoat theory, then examining their psychic dimensions through Jungian and trauma frameworks, and finally assessing their continuing relevance in contemporary critical discourse. Based on René Girard and Carl Jung theories, this paper suggests that Heaney’s bog poems execute a cultural unconscious dictated by cyclical patterns of revolutionary violence and oppression. These poems, which are historically and mythically based, have a complex emotional landscape in which Irish heritage is to be proud of but is punctuated by shared guilt and unhealed trauma as well. By incorporating recent trends in Heaney scholarship, this article seeks to illuminate how his poetic explorations of the bog remain relevant in the contemporary, shifting, and deeply complex post-conflict memory.
Delbandi, O. (2026). Excavating Anxiety: Scapegoating, Ritual Violence and Collective Memory in Seamus Heaney’s Bog Poems. Critical Literary Studies, (), -. doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64739
MLA
Delbandi, O. . "Excavating Anxiety: Scapegoating, Ritual Violence and Collective Memory in Seamus Heaney’s Bog Poems", Critical Literary Studies, , , 2026, -. doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64739
HARVARD
Delbandi, O. (2026). 'Excavating Anxiety: Scapegoating, Ritual Violence and Collective Memory in Seamus Heaney’s Bog Poems', Critical Literary Studies, (), pp. -. doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64739
CHICAGO
O. Delbandi, "Excavating Anxiety: Scapegoating, Ritual Violence and Collective Memory in Seamus Heaney’s Bog Poems," Critical Literary Studies, (2026): -, doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64739
VANCOUVER
Delbandi, O. Excavating Anxiety: Scapegoating, Ritual Violence and Collective Memory in Seamus Heaney’s Bog Poems. Critical Literary Studies, 2026; (): -. doi: 10.22034/cls.2026.64739
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