Cultural Memory and Images of Resurrection in Medbh McGuckian’s Commemorative Poems

This article analyses four poems by Medbh McGuckian, all of them commemorating deceased loved ones or historical figures. The essay discusses the poet’s strategies of commemoration from the perspective of cultural memory studies and focuses on the ways allusions in the poems establish parallels with other texts and works of art. The article argues that the interactions between various allusions within these poems imitate the processes of cultural memory and that the connections with pre-existing texts situate McGuckian’s poems among them. By bringing together and reviving earlier approaches to death and grief through allusions, the poet commemorates the deceased by linking their memories to those of mythical, historical figures and artists whose memory already lives on in various forms. Issues concerning the ethics of commemoration are discussed in connection with allusions to historical events while questions about the possibility of consolation are explored through detailed analyses of biblical allusions.   Keywords: Medbh McGuckian, commemoration, cultural memory, allusions, Bible