Although Edward Saidís exile is different from Sara Berkeleyís
self imposed emigration, his comments in ëThe Mind in Winter:
Reflection of Life in Exileí (1984) are relevant:
in a secular and contingent world, homes are always provisional. Borders and
barriers which enclose us within the safety of familiar territory can also become
prisons, and are often defended beyond reason or necessity. Exiles cross
borders, break barriers of thought and experience.^4Said talks of a politics that attempts to transcend deep ideological
allegiances; boundaries imposed by our home, class, nation, gender
and race that lead to the Manichean valorization of one identity over
another. The project of finding a fertile displacement is common to
feminist and post-colonial thinkers alike as they attempt to address the
centre from the periphery, while calling into question this very divi-
sion of territory and power. ëSecular Criticismí imagines homeless-
ness as a space for ëutopian potentialityí.^5 For Said, the importance of
post-colonial criticism lies in the theorization of border transgression
and the recognition of otherness. In view of Saidís comments and
reading Berkeleyís representation of identity and alterity, the
relationship between aesthetics and the political, ethics and politics,
subjectivity and communication, and poetry and philosophy can be
explored in more detail.
length of this study other poems that connect with these issues cannot be
discussed in detail including: Penn (Dublin: Raven, 1986): ‘Out In the Storm’
(p.13), ‘Brainburst’ (p.14). Home Movie Nights (Dublin: Raven, 1989): ‘Pole-
Bound’ (p.21), ‘A Time of Drought’ (p.45), ‘Maker of Rain’ (p.48), ‘The
Figures in the Rain’ (p.50), ‘The Drowning Element’ (p.51), ‘Coming to Shore’
(p.58). Facts About Water (Newcastle: Bloodaxe, 1994): ‘Man In Balloon’
(p.56), ‘The Drowning’ (p.57), ‘Man In Flight’ (p.59), ‘Tightrope’ (p.74),
‘Slender Girls’ (p.78), ‘At The Rails’ (p.79) and ‘Undertow’ (p.90).
4 Edward Said, ‘The Mind In Winter: Reflection of Life in Exile’, Harper’s,
No.269 (September 1984), p.54.
5 Said, ‘Secular Criticism’, The World, the Text, the Critic (Cambridge Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1983). Bearing in mind the heavily inscribed spaces
of Palestinian and Israeli territories in Jerusalem, and the sectarian spaces of
Belfast, hope for free or neutral space seems optimistic, even in the light of
peace negotiation.