The Routledge Companion to Seamus Heaney examines the full range of Seamus Heaney's writing across all genres, as well as looking at his reception. The book looks at the micro-aspects of his writing in terms of style, symbolism and uses of language as well as at the macro-elements in terms of the social, political, linguistic and cultural contexts within which he wrote, and within which his writing was received. It examines his career development, as the Heaney of Death of a Naturalist is very different from the Heaney of Human Chain, and his translation of Aeneid Book VI. The contributors also address his letters and interviews, most notably Stepping Stones, genres which offer a form of meta-commentary on his own work from his own, less guarded perspective, and which allow for a broader reading of the concerns of the poet. This volume is not intended as a capstone to Heaney scholarship, but acts as a stepping stone towards future studies of the Nobel laureates writing.
