The Transpolitical Role of Poetry According to Joseph Brodsky and Seamus Heaney

How should the relationship between poetry and politics be understood? In this paper, I argue that the poets Joseph Brodsky and Seamus Heaney—in their speeches, interviews, and essays—make a significant contribution to our understanding of this question. Each poet agrees, though for somewhat different reasons, that poetry can play an important political role by supplementing political life from a transpolitical standpoint. I elaborate and evaluate their claims in defense of this argument, which may cast new light not only on the relationship between politics and poetry, but on the relationship between politics and art more generally.