Top
Skip to Content
LOGO(small) - Queen's University Belfast
  • Our facebook
  • Our instagram
  • Our x-twitter
LOGO(large) - Queen's University Belfast

The Seamus Heaney Centre

  • Home
  • About
    • The Centre
    • The Blackbird
    • The Heaney Community
    • Literary Belfast
    • Collections at the Seamus Heaney Centre
  • Our People
    • The SHC Fellows
    • Ciaran Carson & Publishing Fellows
    • Fulbright Scholars
    • Children's Writing Fellow
    • Visiting International Poetry Fellows
    • Ireland Chair of Poetry
  • Study
    • The Poetry Summer School
    • Student Showcases and Opportunities
    • Writing Groups
    • New Students...
    • SHC X Fighting Words
    • Hear from Alumni
  • First Collection Poetry Prize
    • Poetry Prize 2025
    • Poetry Prize 2024
    • Poetry Prize 2023
    • Poetry Prize 2022
    • Poetry Prize 2021
    • Poetry Prize 2020
  • Resources
    • The SHC Podcast
    • SHC Publications
    • Criticism & Ideas on Writing
    • Films & Virtual Events
    • Writers' Interviews
    • Tiny Masterclasses
  • News
  • Events
    • SHC Presents...
    • Ekphrasis: Writing & Art
    • Conferences
    • Reading Seamus Heaney
    • Translation
  • Home
  • About
    • The Centre
    • The Blackbird
    • The Heaney Community
    • Literary Belfast
    • Collections at the Seamus Heaney Centre
  • Our People
    • The SHC Fellows
    • Ciaran Carson & Publishing Fellows
    • Fulbright Scholars
    • Children's Writing Fellow
    • Visiting International Poetry Fellows
    • Ireland Chair of Poetry
  • Study
    • The Poetry Summer School
    • Student Showcases and Opportunities
    • Writing Groups
    • New Students...
    • SHC X Fighting Words
    • Hear from Alumni
  • First Collection Poetry Prize
    • Poetry Prize 2025
    • Poetry Prize 2024
    • Poetry Prize 2023
    • Poetry Prize 2022
    • Poetry Prize 2021
    • Poetry Prize 2020
  • Resources
    • The SHC Podcast
    • SHC Publications
    • Criticism & Ideas on Writing
    • Films & Virtual Events
    • Writers' Interviews
    • Tiny Masterclasses
  • News
  • Events
    • SHC Presents...
    • Ekphrasis: Writing & Art
    • Conferences
    • Reading Seamus Heaney
    • Translation
  • Our facebook
  • Our instagram
  • Our x-twitter
In This Section
  • The Friday Critique
  • The Twelve Reads of Christmas
  • Notions
  • The Saturday Matinee
  • The Sunday Spotlight
  • Staff Picks 2024

  • Home
  • Seamus Heaney Centre
  • Resources
  • Criticism & Ideas on Writing
  • Notions

Notions

Students and alumni share their thoughts on the literary process and their reading habits in this video series of observation, obscurity and oddity. Through these (approximately) five minute masterclasses, ideas are explained, theories are shared, and concepts are demystified. 

Current postgraduate students at the Seamus Heaney Centre are invited to contribute to the series with their own notions.

NOTIONS
We are looking for...

Engaging introductions to literary terms, theories or concepts
Thoughtful and original ideas or perspectives
Brevity! (videos up to five minutes long)

NOTIONS are aimed at readers or writers (school leavers or older), who are interested in literature as a course of study or career, or just in finding a deeper understanding of the writing they love. 
Send submissions or enquiries to shc@qub.ac.uk

 


Watch the latest below or...
Follow us for regular updates
Notions Darren Murphy Fin
The Game (7mins)

Darren Murphy explores his theory that every good play has a game at its centre, and how this becomes the engine which drives the drama forward, giving it a propulsive quality. This present-tenseness, it is argued, is what distinguishes a play from other forms of narrative storytelling, achieving what Galway playwright Tom Murphy called being ‘alive in time at the same time.’

Crabtree
The Auto-Exotic in Belfast Poetry (6 min)

Isabel Crabtree reads Sinéad Morrissey, Leontia Flynn, and Alan Gillis through the lens of Joep Leerssen’s theory of “auto-exoticism” to explore how their work legitimises, complicates, and ironizes the poet’s public role and the politics of change in the post-Good Friday Agreement era.

Notions Leah Taylor Fin
The Poem as Literary Photograph (6mins)

Leah Taylor discusses her theory that a poem can capture a moment in time, acting as a literary photograph. She shows how the poetic medium allows us to convey the scene just as a photo would, but with added depth, context and emotion – that is, more insight into what's going on.

Notions Matthew Rice Fin
Growing the Poem (3mins)

Matthew Rice outlines his theory that there is an intangible, organic and mysterious element to writing verse – that the poet must surrender themselves to the moment in order to become forgetful of the ‘self’, as Heaney had it, during the act of composition. The success of a poem created this way, it is argued, may be judged by the terms it alone has set up.

Criticism & Ideas on Writing
  • Criticism & Ideas on Writing
  • The Friday Critique
  • The Twelve Reads of Christmas
  • Notions
  • The Saturday Matinee
  • The Sunday Spotlight
  • Staff Picks 2024
QUB Logo
Contact Us

Seamus Heaney Centre
38-40 University Road, Belfast
BT7 1NN

GET DIRECTIONS

Phone: 028 9097 1077
Email: shc@qub.ac.uk 

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Study
  • People
  • Literary Belfast
  • News
  • Events

© Queen's University Belfast 2024
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Website accessibility
  • Freedom of information
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • University Policies and Procedures
Information
  • Privacy and cookies
  • Website accessibility
  • Freedom of information
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • University Policies and Procedures

© Queen's University Belfast 2024

Manage cookies