Becoming Wild in Queer Irish Poetry

Abstract: This talk will consider how Jack Halberstam’s concept of ‘the wild,’ as an expanded form of queer relationality, can be used to foster alternative relationships to the non-human world in Ireland. From an Irish perspective, ‘the wild’ emerges a site of resistance to heteronormativity, as well as an attentiveness to the colonial histories that inform contemporary ecological destruction. Considering these legacies of violence, this symposium will utilise arguments drawn from the anti-social thesis of queer theory, particularly the work of Heather Love, to explore the ecological possibilities of melancholia. While the application of anti-social frameworks to Irish concerns might seem anachronistic given Ireland’s position as the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote, queer Irish poets Mary Montague and Seán Hewitt present the land itself as a melancholic space that testifies to the colonial histories the wild interrogates. Furthermore, these poets undermine the persistence of the ‘against nature’ discourse, which frames sexual minorities as ‘unnatural,’ by positioning the queer body as an essential tool in reconnecting with wounded Irish landscapes. This talk will therefore propose a wild ecological ethic that is resistant to environmental purity, instead favouring a melancholic attachment to loss and a refusal to ignore the entangled histories of colonial violence that the consequences of climate change continuously evoke.